Day 3
Isaiah is vey explicit on what true fasting is all about in chapter 58. Fasting does not imply an activity that only impacts oneself. The hunger I feel should mean more than just I am able to attain some merit, self-mastery, or that I am experiencing hunger in solidarity with those who are hungry due to poverty. Or goody, I am going to lose weight.
The feeling of hunger should lead me to respond. I should not only offer it up with my prayer for others to make my intercession more powerful, but I should also act to ensure someone doesn’t go hungry today. I can open my eyes to see who are the oppressed, the homeless, the naked and the needy in my immediate vicinity and reach out. I don’t even have to look very far at times, for it could be someone I know, my own kin. And should I not help my own brother or sister if I help strangers?
Fasting from excess, doing without in order that I can channel what I have deprived myself of and put it towards helping the marginalized is what Isaiah exhorts. He wants my time, my effort, my money - how can I use them in a way that will bless others, especially those others who would never be able to reciprocate, and to do it sensitively such that I still respect the dignity of the other. It is definitely food for thought today, especially with the sweetener Isaiah promises in verse 11:
The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
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