Fasting For Lent, What is Lent, When Does Lent Begin, Ways to Fast for Lent

15 Fasts for Lent

Fasting is a path to peace and happiness. That's right: fasting, the practice of abstaining from food or drink for meals, days, and even weeks at a time, is one of the most powerful ways we have of becoming closer to God and finding true joy. Self-denial leads to a greater sense of wholeness. That's why Christians have fasted for thousands of years, and it's why Lent, the 6-week period etween Ash Wednesday and Easter, is a time of serious fasting.

Unless you're an Orthodox Christian , however, you don't have to simply fast from food. Many Christians today are creative about fasting, and Lent can be a time of shedding whatever is standing between you and God. To get started, read our list of 15 ways to fast, and pray about how God would have you draw closer to him during this important season.

Fast from Money

How little can you spend in 6 weeks? Let's find out. Lent can be a time of extreme budgeting, a season of thinking long and hard about your relationship to all material things, chiefly dollars and cents. Fast from money by living only on what you need. Pay your bills on time and purchase enough food to eat three squares a day, but wipe out every unessential. Chances are, you'll be shocked at how much you spend, and you'll have a lot to pray about regarding your financial practices.

When Easter comes, you may have a surplus of funds. Whether it's $20 or $2000, think and pray about what to do with it. Whether you give it away, begin a new financial commitment to a worthwhile cause, or start that long-delayed savings account, a 6-week break from spending will redefine your relationship to money.

Fast from Church

For some of us, church has become a huge chore. It means frantic Sunday mornings, worrying over your hair and clothes and trying to beat the clock. Church can be a habit, and it can be a dead routine. The problem with this churchgoing malaise is that church is hugely important to the Christian life. Meeting together, worshipping God with others, taking communion, and receiving sound spiritual instruction are essential acts for any Christian. If it has become unessential for you, but you're going anyway, you may need to fast from it for a while. Spend Sundays examining yourself, praying, reading Scripture, and finding a path back to a church life that can help you build a better life.

Fast from Your Church

You can fast from church completely, but for many of us a better fast is to break from our own church for a season. Being consumed in the life of your church is a wonderful thing, but it can also make for a busybody. So visit other churches during Lent. Take a tour of witnesses to Christ, and especially darken the doors of churches you never thought you'd visit. Attend a Catholic mass, a megachurch service, and meetings at the Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Quaker, Assemblies of God, Vineyard, and nondenominational churches in your town.

Look for churches where the people don't look like you--the Gospel is colorblind, and you will be, too, after you meet the full array of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Fast from Workouts

Until the nineteenth century, many Christians believed that athletics were a waste of time--an exercise of one's vanity, not one's respiratory system. It's okay that we think differently about sports and leisure, but it's also worth considering what those Christians knew that we may have forgotten today. With a 6-week break from workouts, you'll have time to reflect on how you understand and relate to our modern exercise culture.

Sorry--this doesn't mean you get to sit on the couch for a month and a half. Walk where you can, eat more veggies than normal, and stretch throughout the day. But if you live for workouts, it may be time to examine that part of your life by giving it up for a while. Whether you're a gym rat, a weekend runner, a yoga addict, or a regular at the local basketball court, an extended fast will help you run the race of life.

Fast from Driving

If you live in a car culture where driving is the norm, you may be clicking to the next slide already. But wait--think about it for a moment. What would it take for you to carpool? To plan your shopping so that you can go to the store less? To choose not to go places that are not absolutely necessary?

There are several benefits to fasting from driving, or fasting from it as much as you can. It's good for the environment, of course, but more importantly, it's good for your soul. Choose to be stationary. Choose to connect with the way people have lived through most of human history. Reflect on the meaning of driving 15 miles to do something that you couldn't do if you lived in a different time, or even in a different part of the world today. Driving is something most of us do so reflexively that we've never considered what our car culture does to us spiritually. Let Lent be a time of considering just that.

Fast from Reading

Have you ever thought of how much input you receive on a daily or weekly basis? A lot of your textual intake may be good, depending on how you use books and magazines and the Internet. But when is the last time your mind was at rest for long periods? When is the last time you chose to reflect on ideas you already know, rather than respond to new ideas that you read about each day?

Fasting from reading is not unlike the media fast, but in some ways it's more strict. Don't let yourself read the paper or even a spiritual devotional. Stay away from email and any non-essential reading. (We're not advising you to ignore road signs.) Instead, just give your mind to God. Let your mind rest and experience silence. Prayerfulness. Peace. When your fast is done, you'll have learned to read in new ways.

Fast from Trash

In some ways, Lent is already about reducing waste. Whether you're fasting from food or cultivating silence, you're limiting the amount of waste in your life. Not all waste is bad, of course--every time you eat, you produce waste--but then, fasting is not about stopping something bad. It's about sacrificing something good so that you can draw near to God.

So: fast from the real cultural good of waste management by greatly reducing your own waste. This means being careful about how you use everything, so that almost nothing is wasted. If you aren't already in the habit of recycling, here's your chance to learn the (simple) discipline. If you are, then take an inventory of the other areas of your daily life that produce trash. Can you buy more whole foods that don't come pre-packaged? Can you use fewer bags, or stick to reusable ones? Do what you can to fast from trash, and pray about what you learn along the way. You may redefine how you move through--and use--the world.

Fast from Multitasking

People have been debating the value or vice of multitasking for several years now, and the jury is still out. What's certain is that we're multitasking more than ever, whether that means using Instant Message while sitting in a meeting or listening to your iPod while unloading the dishwasher.

During Lent, fast from multitasking by only allowing yourself to do one thing at a time. Again--the point isn't to let go of something that's bad, because multitasking may be necessary or even good for you, some of the time. The point is to give your use of time, and the tools we've created to make more time, to God. Put time in his hands by doing only one thing at a time, and reminding yourself that you're simplifying for him.