Fasting

From 9 am on Tuesday to 9 am on Wednesday the Honors class had a scheduled fast. I chose to fast from food because 1) out of all the worldly/physical things in my life that I rely on/use on a daily basis, food would be the most difficult for me to be without 2) I thought that experiencing hunger would give me greater empathy for those who don’t have food for days on end and 3) the spiritual connection associated with fasting in the bible.
The experience of fasting could be connected to multiple activities over the semester (since generally poverty is related to hunger) but the strongest connection would be to the hunger simulation. The hunger simulation experience in itself was frustrating just because of time, planning, and forms-and we were college kids acting the part. We didn’t really have kids running around or empty bellies. It was stressful as it was, but by adding in some of the things that I experienced due to lack of food (like the crankiness and lack of energy) it makes the simulation more realistic.
Sadly, I didn’t experience everything that I was hoping I would in participating in the fast. Going without lunch was fairly easy, and dinner wasn’t too bad either. Aside from a slight headache and the fact that my eyes weren’t focusing as well, I wasn’t too affected. That is, at least, until I was sleeping. I woke up several times in the night quite uncomfortable and quite hungry. Although I’ve been told that the second day is easier, I wasn’t feeling the best on Wednesday morning. I was lightheaded and shaky, so I decided it was time for food at 9:30. I was going to try to make it to the Lord’s Supper and eat after that, but sometimes in choir I get light headed as it is with the low breathing, and I figured fainting in chapel wasn’t the best plan.
I don’t feel I got as much spiritually out of fasting as I had hoped. Whenever I would have been eating meals, I went to the chapel to pray. However, I didn’t have any spiritual “ah ha” moments or other such things that people speak about. Granted, I did have a full 5 hours of distraction during dinner time; I was able to go and see Grapes of Wrath (which was very interesting and completely related, but it also served to take my mind of things). For me, fasting was almost a test of mental willpower versus spiritual reliance-food was defiantly available, but it was just convincing myself not to eat or want to eat. But, I think if I fasted for multiple days, then it would be much more of a spiritual experience versus mental. It was interesting to me, though, that when I was hungry or tired, it did help to pray and read the bible. In fact, at night when I couldn’t sleep, and that was the worst, I’d start singing hymns or liturgy and that’s what would lull me back to sleep.
Empathy is probably what hit me the strongest after fasting. I don’t really think my mood changed much the first day without food, but the next morning I had absolutely zero energy, to do anything-all I wanted to do was sleep, and I defiantly had to act and put on a “I’m doing just fine and dandy” face. And I only didn’t eat for one day. As a working adult, you can see that it’s not necessarily that people are lazy or slow, they really just have no energy to do anything because they don’t have food.