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Lent: What Doing Without Can Teach You - March 21, 2007
I spent a day going without food, in sympathy with my husband who was having one of those unpleasant procedures doctors cook up for you after you reach the age of 50. Since I'm older than he is, I had already been through it, and knew the toughest part of a colonoscopy is what you go through before you get to the hospital.
I didn't mind giving up food with Stuart. It was a Sunday, so I found it tremendously freeing not to cook or clean up or spend time in the kitchen at all that day.
And when I finally "broke the fast" with him when we went out for breakfast after his procedure on Monday morning, the first taste of pancake practically exploded in my mouth, it tasted so good. I marveled at how much we take food for granted. Not just having it, but also the flavors of food.
Our sense of taste is dulled when we nibble all day long (as I often do). I am, unfortunately, a nibbler. Not so much out of hunger, as out of habit.
In our congregation, we observe Lent, which is when you give up something you enjoy for the purpose of making you more mindful of God. Every time you get hungry or crave a cup of coffee or whatever, it can remind you to pray or think about God. This year I'm trying to go from breakfast to lunch without a snack (my earlier admission that I'm a nibbler tells you this is hard for me).
I was intrigued to read about youth voluntarily going without food for 30 hours to help make them aware of the hungry people of the world and to raise money for World Vision International. Youth in the northern Virginia area near Washington, D.C. fasted this year and also worked in soup kitchens. Their experience was publicized in the Feb. 25, 2007 Washington Post by Rosalind S. Helderman.
Why care? 852 million people across the world experience hunger each year. Every year 10.5 million people under the age of five die of malnutrition or starvation.
"You just feel exhausted," Kailan Kinkel, 17, was quoted as saying she was as one of 3,000 local teens and 500,000 across the world who participated in this year's fast. The purpose is to raise general awareness about those who continually, or especially near the end of the month, go hungry. "You feel dead tired, said Kinkel. "Your brain doesn't work. ... It makes you understand why people who are hungry can't get up and go work or get a job." (Which is why I only do a half-day fast: a longer one leaves me headachy or too lethargic.)
That some 500,000 kids would voluntarily participate is pretty amazing, and typically the teens do more than just not eat. The kids in this article worked preparing food at soup kitchens (which makes you hungrier) and also sewed gifts for children in hospitals. The teens also were supposed to get someone to sponsor them.
"They're obviously not going to know what it's like to starve, but it does give them a taste of hunger," Helderman quoted Jim Harrington in her article, the youth leader of Friendship United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Kids "enjoy" the experience so much they often recruit other kids to participate in following years.
There are many ways to "give up" something in order to gain insight into yourself, your world, and the many gifts you've been given. Even if it is too late for this Lent, just disciplining yourself for one day can be a useful exercise. Break out of your routine: don't turn on the TV when you get home tonight; skip supper and take a walk; spend time in prayer or meditation instead of reading your favorite magazine. Visit someone in a nursing home. These are all ways to bring more meaning to routine days, to help you be more mindful of God and God's role in your life and the world.
Contributed by Melodie Davis: [email protected] Melodie is the author of eight books and writes a syndicated newspaper column, Another Way
I spent a day going without food, in sympathy with my husband who was having one of those unpleasant procedures doctors cook up for you after you reach the age of 50. Since I'm older than he is, I had already been through it, and knew the toughest part of a colonoscopy is what you go through before you get to the hospital.
I didn't mind giving up food with Stuart. It was a Sunday, so I found it tremendously freeing not to cook or clean up or spend time in the kitchen at all that day.
And when I finally "broke the fast" with him when we went out for breakfast after his procedure on Monday morning, the first taste of pancake practically exploded in my mouth, it tasted so good. I marveled at how much we take food for granted. Not just having it, but also the flavors of food.
Our sense of taste is dulled when we nibble all day long (as I often do). I am, unfortunately, a nibbler. Not so much out of hunger, as out of habit.
In our congregation, we observe Lent, which is when you give up something you enjoy for the purpose of making you more mindful of God. Every time you get hungry or crave a cup of coffee or whatever, it can remind you to pray or think about God. This year I'm trying to go from breakfast to lunch without a snack (my earlier admission that I'm a nibbler tells you this is hard for me).
I was intrigued to read about youth voluntarily going without food for 30 hours to help make them aware of the hungry people of the world and to raise money for World Vision International. Youth in the northern Virginia area near Washington, D.C. fasted this year and also worked in soup kitchens. Their experience was publicized in the Feb. 25, 2007 Washington Post by Rosalind S. Helderman.
Why care? 852 million people across the world experience hunger each year. Every year 10.5 million people under the age of five die of malnutrition or starvation.
"You just feel exhausted," Kailan Kinkel, 17, was quoted as saying she was as one of 3,000 local teens and 500,000 across the world who participated in this year's fast. The purpose is to raise general awareness about those who continually, or especially near the end of the month, go hungry. "You feel dead tired, said Kinkel. "Your brain doesn't work. ... It makes you understand why people who are hungry can't get up and go work or get a job." (Which is why I only do a half-day fast: a longer one leaves me headachy or too lethargic.)
That some 500,000 kids would voluntarily participate is pretty amazing, and typically the teens do more than just not eat. The kids in this article worked preparing food at soup kitchens (which makes you hungrier) and also sewed gifts for children in hospitals. The teens also were supposed to get someone to sponsor them.
"They're obviously not going to know what it's like to starve, but it does give them a taste of hunger," Helderman quoted Jim Harrington in her article, the youth leader of Friendship United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Kids "enjoy" the experience so much they often recruit other kids to participate in following years.
There are many ways to "give up" something in order to gain insight into yourself, your world, and the many gifts you've been given. Even if it is too late for this Lent, just disciplining yourself for one day can be a useful exercise. Break out of your routine: don't turn on the TV when you get home tonight; skip supper and take a walk; spend time in prayer or meditation instead of reading your favorite magazine. Visit someone in a nursing home. These are all ways to bring more meaning to routine days, to help you be more mindful of God and God's role in your life and the world.
Contributed by Melodie Davis: [email protected] Melodie is the author of eight books and writes a syndicated newspaper column, Another Way
