Lynne Baab • Thursday October 3 2019
My body and I have a checkered relationship. As a teenager I was quite athletic and physically active. As an adult, I have exercised three times a week, almost every week, for decades. Exercise calms my rioting thoughts and emotions, helps me sleep better, and gets me out in nature. Throughout my adult life and even now, in my 60s, I haven’t been super athletic, but neither am I completely sedentary. I’d love to exercise a bit more, but what I do works well for me.
My eating, however, is another story. In my teen years, my mother and I engaged in food wars. She wanted me to be thinner, and she hid cookies, monitored what I ate at meals, and sadly (because this not what she intended) took away my ability to pay attention to what my body was telling me about food, appetite and fullness. As a result, I became unmoored from my body’s needs in the area of food.
I became a committed Christian at 19, and have prayed so many times about food, weight, eating, and appetite. I’ve received a lot of personal support for my eating struggles, but very little helpful teaching. I can’t remember a sermon on how to honor God with our bodies except in the area of sexuality, and I’ve heard very few of those. My experience is not unique. Christians have too often been disconnected from their physical bodies.
The renewed interest in fasting helps address what some people call discarnate Christianity. “Discarnate” means not having a body, which of course is an overstatement related to human life. Obviously we all have bodies. But we pay so little attention to them theologically and in relationship to ministry that sometimes I think we might as well not have them.
We might also consider “discarnate” to be the opposite of “incarnate.” We talk so much about Jesus’ incarnation, the fact that he took on flesh, and then we focus on human flesh so seldom, and mostly related to sexuality.
The word “discarnate” is used a lot these days when talking about technology. Prophetic voices tell us that the constant use of cellphones is creating a discarnate world. I mentioned last week that fasting from technology will be a significant spiritual practice in the years to come. One result of fasting from technology can be getting in closer touch with the created world by getting outside without ear buds shutting out the birds and wind. Turning off technology can help us be physically present in our place. All of this can help us live more solidly in our own bodies.
Fasting from food can accomplish some of the same goals. Of course, fasting from food is the earliest form of fasting in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Fasts in the Bible and early Christian history could be from:
Fasting from food is one way to feel connected to our bodies as we experience hunger and use the hunger feelings to turn to God in prayer.
Ironically for people like me who have had a troubled relationship with food, most experts recommend avoiding fasting from food in any form for anyone who has ever had an eating disorder. Despite that advice, I have fasted from all food several times and from some foods many times. I do go into those fasts with a spiritual intention, and I always pray more during those fasts, but fasting is always blurred by my desire to lose weight.
I can see that those experts are right. Fasting from food is simply not a great way for me to get more in touch with my body and appetite. And for people with a history of anorexia or bulimia, fasting from food in any form can trigger a new episode. If you promote fasting in your church or other setting, always give non-food options and always say something about people with a history of eating disorders.
Those of us with a history of a disordered relationship with food can still fast from other things, especially various forms of technology, which will help us center ourselves in our bodies. All of us can work on living as a being made in the image of a God who became incarnate. And I can still pray and ponder what it means to honor God with my eating, while trying to live joyfully in this body God gave me.
(Next week: a fast from noise and words. Illustration by Dave Baab: jogging at Aramoana, New Zealand. I welcome new subscribers who receive an email when I post on this blog. Sign up below.)
Some links for you:
My book on fasting
Article: Following Jesus Each Day
Article: The Compassion and Empathy of Jesus
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Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christians spiritual practices. Read more »
Lynne is pleased to announce the release of her two 2024 books, both of them illustrated with her talented husband Dave's watercolors. She is thrilled at how good the watercolors look in the printed books, and in the kindle versions, if read on a phone, the watercolors glow. Friendship, Listening and Empathy: A Prayer Guide guides the reader into new ways to pray about the topics in the title. Draw Near: A Lenten Devotional guides the reader to a psalm for each day of Lent and offers insightful reflection/discussion questions that can be used alone or in groups.
Another recent book is Two Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian Life, available in paperback, audiobook, and for kindle. Lynne's 2018 book is Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care for the Twenty-First Century, and her most popular book is Sabbath-Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest (now available as an audiobook as well as paperback and kindle). You can see her many other book titles here, along with her Bible study guides.
You can listen to Lynne talk about these topics: empathy, bringing spiritual practices to life. Sabbath keeping for recent grads., and Sabbath keeping for families and children.
Lynne was interviewed for the podcast "As the Crow Flies". The first episode focuses on why listening matters and the second one on listening skills.
Here are two talks Lynne gave on listening (recorded in audio form on YouTube): Listening for Mission and Ministry and Why Listening Matters for Mission and Ministry.
"Lynne's writing is beautiful. Her tone has such a note of hope and excitement about growth. It is gentle and affirming."
— a reader
"Dear Dr. Baab, You changed my life. It is only through God’s gift of the sabbath that I feel in my heart and soul that God loves me apart from anything I do."
— a reader of Sabbath Keeping
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