Truths drawn from the fast

Now that my 21 day fast is over, I have been looking back and trying to determine what exactly I have learned from the experience.

I guess, first and foremost, I learned how much of my life is driven by my fleshly wants, cravings and desires. Only rarely was I physically hungry at any time during the fast- most notably the last two days- but what was driving me to distraction were the intense cravings I experienced for breads, chips and peanut butter; all of which are things I certainly don't need for survival. I realize that I have to look into my heart and determine, through prayer, what it is that I lack and what need I am trying to fulfill through eating these things and why that need is so important to me. God provides all we need to sustain life, and life abundant; as long as we are driven by cravings, whether they be food, sex, drugs/alcohol, T.V., material things etc., we are distancing ourselves from God and His will for our lives.

As I headed into the last two days of the fast, I was ready for it just to be over. My fleshly body was telling me that I had no more to gain from finishing out the last two days and that my hunger was blocking any further communication with God. My spirit, however, was calling a different tune and I was led to No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton.
Chapter 6 is titled "Asceticism and Sacrifice"
and I thought that would be a good place to start. Here are a few excerpts from what I found: "The spirit of man must first subject itself to grace and then it can bring the flesh in subjection both to grace and to itself. Grace inspires us with no desire except to do the will of God, no matter what His will may be, no matter whether it be pleasing or unpleasant to our own nature." Romans 8:13 "if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

"It is one thing to live in the flesh, and quite another to live according to the flesh. The second case makes the flesh an end in itself."

"It gives great glory to God for a person to live in this world using and appreciating the good things of life without care, without anxiety, and without inordinate passion. In order to know and love God through His gifts, we have to use them as if we used them not- and yet we have to use them." See (1Corinthians 7:29-31)

"The man who loves God more than himself is indifferent to the impact of things in his own life. He considers things only in relation to God's glory and God's will... But he is no more indifferent to the value of things in themselves than he is indifferent to God. He loves them in the same act with which he loves God. That is: he loves them in the act by which he has renounced them, and in that love by renouncing them he has regained them on a higher level."

"The virtue that is sufficiently resolute to pay the price of self-denial will eventually taste greater pleasure in the things it has renounced than could ever be enjoyed by the sinner who clings to those same things as desperately as if they were his god."

This is some profound stuff, I know, but this concept has had a great impact on me and given me much to pray and study about as I move forward after this fast. ALL things are a gift from God, and only when we are able to sacrificially give them up to Him, can we accept them back as His gift to us and truly appreciate and enjoy them. I've got a long way to go but this fast has given me a goal to strive for.