Fasting and Scuba Diving
I was reading this month’s Esquire Magazine on the treadmill the other day. I find 3.6 is the perfect treadmill speed–slow enough to read a magazine and fast enough that it doesn’t look like I’m standing still.
In the center of the magazine Tom Chiarella writes an article entitled The 75 Things Every Man Should Do. For the most part, this checklist of essential experiences contains exactly what you would suspect: adrenaline-fueled adventures, feats of bravado, and sexual exploits. On the other hand, I was surprised to see a few items which parallel spiritual disciplines and fruit.
Most notable is Number 6: Fast for three days. Drink only water (compare with Ezra 8 and Matthew 6). In a checklist that also includes Overeat for a week in Italy, you would expect some sort of explanation for fasting. Unfortunately, Chiarella gives none. On the other hand, fasting is probably one of the least practiced spiritual disciplines among American Christians.
Quite a strange day when the modern, secular man is encouraged to practice a biblical discipline which Christians for the most part neglect.
Also notable on the list are Number 42: Sell everything you don’t need once and Number 54: Give a panhandler all of your money (compare both with Luke 12 and Luke 18).
It’s fascinating to see lists like this overlap with Biblical principles in some regards–while also being diametrically opposed in others (Number 62: Take long-lasting drugs and Number 33: Overspend).
The difference, of course, is obvious: what the Bible presents as a purposeful discipline, Esquire presents as simply a line-item on a list with little or no purpose. Personally, I think people like Chiarella know that there are deep spiritual components to practices such as fasting. They just don’t know how to explain it.
For the record, I’ve completed 21.5 of the items on the list.
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Hi Erik!
You read Esquire?! … but Bro pick up the pace, my grandma can move faster than that… well maybe not my grandma.