Is this the kind of fast I have chosen?

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,

only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed

and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke? 

Isaiah 58: 5-6

The other night I underwent a twelve hour fast in preparation for a lipid panel test the next morning.  As I was in the midst of my fast, I made a few status updates to Facebook and Twitter lamenting - maybe mildly whining over - the fact that I was fasting. 

The next morning, I went to the Doctor's office - with a cup of coffee I had prepared - had my blood drawn and then broke my fast with a big gulp of coffee when I was back in my car. 

I also checked my Facebook and found that a friend whom I love and respect from my seminary days busted my butt over my whining about my fast. In her challenge to me, she said, 

"You have a fridge to avoid. You have food to crave. You have healthcare to enable you to go through this "horrible" event.""

She was, of course, absolutely right. 

I had selfishly focused on my "misery" over twelve hours away from food (and coffe, gulp!) and had forgotten how many people in this world really do without or struggle to make it day to day wondering where their next meal will come from or how they will pay their medical bills.

I suppose I could excuse myself over the fact that my fast that morning was just a fast for a medical test. It was not a spiritual discipline which I was undertaking.

But then I remembered that as part of the two year Missional Wisdom Program I am set to begin in a couple of weeks I will be committing myself to a Rule of Life. One of the rules - perhaps one of the hardest ones for me - is to commit to a weekly fast from food. 

I have fasted occasionally, mostly during major life transitions or periods of discernment. I have not made it a regular practice for my spiritual life, but when I have fasted it's been mostly about what I am hoping to "receive" from God (a word of wisdom, a confirmation over a decision, a warm fuzzy spiritual feeling, etc.) 

This time around, though, my practice of fasting - more in line with my friend's challenge to me - will be about focusing my heart and eyes on the world around me. It will be about asking the question, "How is God calling me to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords of the yoke, and to set the oppressed free?" 

For sure, it's not the fast I would have chosen. 

But it is the kind of fast that God has chosen.