Tag Archives: Fasting

Dedicated

July 21, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite…’”
Numbers 6:2 (NIV)

This past week Wendy and I were blessed to spend time with our friend, Eric, who just returned from completing 29029, a three-day endurance event in which participants hike a marathon each day for three days at high altitude. Our friend has been steadfastly training for this event for months. It was fun to listen to him share about his experience and the lessons he learned along the way. The lessons were layered: physical, mental, and spiritual.

What has been clear over the past several months is that completing this event required our friend to be dedicated. It was an all-day, every day endeavor from a mental and physical perspective. Like most people, I struggle just to get the amount of exercise to be healthy. My friend is in a special class of individuals dedicating themselves to reach a completely different level of physical performance.

Today’s chapter is unique and fascinating. God is preparing the recently delivered Hebrew slaves for an entirely new way of living life in relationship to God, one another, and the people groups around them. In the book of Leviticus God laid down the regulations for every Hebrew as it related to conducting themselves daily in the camp and in community together with God in their midst. In today’s chapter, God gives every man and woman a choice to reach a completely different level of spiritual dedication.

It was called a “Nazirite” vow and the person who took this vow was referred to as a “Nazirite.” The term comes from the Hebrew word nāzar which means dedicated, separate, and abstain. The Hebrew word nāzîr from which the term “Nazirite” springs is translated as a special class of people dedicated to God. It could also mean “prince” and was used to refer to grapevines that went untended and dedicated to God during God’s prescribed “sabbatical” year of rest. In other words, choosing to take a Nazirite vow as the spiritual equivalent of our friend’s choice to hike three marathons in three days.

The Nazirite could choose the length of his or her vow and period of their consecration. The Nazirite vow wasn’t complicated:

Abstain from all alcohol, don’t even a grape or raisin.
Don’t cut a hair on your head during the period of your vow.
Don’t be in the presence of a dead body, even if your parent dies.
Upon completion of the vow, go before the Lord at the entrance of the traveling tent temple, shave your head and burn it as an offering as part of a prescribed ceremony.

If someone accidentally had a coronary and dropped dead in a Nazirite’s presence, it was a complete do-over. They had to complete a seven-day purification and then start back at day-1 of their consecration period.

One of the details in today’s chapter was that the reason for a Nazirite not cutting their hair was “because the symbol of their dedication to God is on their head.” In other words, this is a public dedication, which both ups the accountability of the Nazirite to keep their vow and challenges everyone else with the daily public reminder. If the every day Hebrew struggled just to keep up with God’s daily spiritual prescriptions for life, the Nazirite was there to remind them that there is an entirely different level of spiritual dedication to which they can ascend.

As I meditated on these things, I was reminded that periods of spiritual consecration and dedication have always been part of the spiritual tradition for Jesus’ followers. When Jesus was asked why He and his disciples feasted and drank with sinners, Jesus replied that everyone celebrates and feasts with the Bridegroom. He then noted that a time would come when “The Bridegroom” would depart. Then His disciples would fast. And, followers of Jesus have always traditionally done so in various ways at various times.

Fasting during the season of Lent leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday is probably the most common, but from the early days of the Jesus Movement there emerged a group of dedicated mystics known as the desert fathers. Their dedication to an ascetic life was the precursor to the monastic movement that is still with us thousands of years later.

To be honest, this morning’s chapter feels a bit like a divine appointment. In recent days and weeks I have had thoughts about a special, personal season of dedication. Spiritually picturing the ancient Nazirites and their long hair in the quiet this morning served God’s original purpose, reminding me there’s an entirely higher level of spiritual dedication. So, I find myself in contemplation and conversation with God about it.

Along this life journey I’ve learned that there are times to dedicate myself to taking things to another level.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well. — These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

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Fasting and Temptation

April 1, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 4:1 (NIV)

It is the season of Lent, a time when many followers of Jesus around the globe choose to fast in preparation for the annual memorial of Jesus’ death and subsequent celebration of His resurrection. Fasting is an ancient spiritual discipline. It is the conscious choice to deny oneself of physical appetites in order to focus heart and mind on things of the Spirit.

The first time I fasted for Lent was when I was a young teenager. It was sort of a bet with my father. My parents always ragged on me for how much Coke I drank, so I chose to fast from all pop/soda for Lent. My dad chose to fast from television. The thing was, Coke was easily replaced by other sugary drinks or even candy. My dad was a CPA and Lent always happens during tax season. So, I watched him come home and work all evening doing taxes at the dining room table rather than laying on the couch watching television. I’m not sure that either of us understood or embraced the “focus heart and mind on the things of the Spirit” part of the fasting equation.

Along my spiritual journey I have observed that people make one of two errors when it comes to traditions like Lent and fasting. One mistake is to take it too seriously so that over time it becomes an empty and impotent religious ritual. The other mistake is to ignore it completely as if it has no value. In that case, one misses out on the tremendous spiritual lessons and benefits that the traditions hold.

I have tried to strike a balance between these two extremes by approaching each Lenten season open to where I am in my journey and how God’s Spirit is leading me wherever I am on Life’s road. After all, today’s chapter states that it was the Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. I believe that the Spirit’s leading is an ingredient that should not be ignored. Some years I have not fasted at all as I was not led. Other years I have been prompted by God’s Spirit to seriously fast for one reason or another. This is one of those years.

Perhaps because I’ve completed almost four weeks of my Lenten fast, today’s retelling of Jesus being tempted by the Evil One resonated deeply within me on multiple levels.

I have observed over the years that people tend to think of “sin” in terms of gross immorality, obvious deviance from what is socially acceptable, and behavioral over indulgence in sex, drugs, and alcohol. It was the same in Jesus’ day. He got in hot water with the religious establishment when he feasted with “sinners” who were known for their indulgences in such “sinful” things. Jesus made clear that His religious critics were nothing more than hypocrites, for the problem of sin is far more expansive than obvious public immoralities.

At the heart of it, the Evil One’s temptations were from his basic playbook. It has been said that evil cannot “make” it can only “mock.” Evil really isn’t that creative. The Prince of this World tempted Jesus in the same way he tempted Adam and Eve. Basic human appetites.

Lust of the eyes:
Adam and Eve: “It was pleasing to the eye”
Jesus: “All the kingdoms of the world and their splendor can be yours.”
Me: “Oh, I want that!”

Lust of the flesh:
Adam and Eve: “It was good for food”
Jesus: “You’re hungry. Turn these stones to bread.”
Me: “If one serving is good, then two is even better!”

Pride of life:
Adam and Eve: “It was desirable for gaining wisdom”
Jesus: “Prove me wrong. Fall and let the angels catch you.”
Me: “I’m good enough. I will do what I want to do.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the things of heart and Spirit that my Lenten fasting have brought to light for me this year. I am reminded how easily basic and good human appetites can be indulged in unhealthy ways. I find myself realizing that sin is not so much about gross immorality as much as it is about simply not being content. And, I find myself struck at how Jesus’ temptation is connected to Adam and Eve in the Garden, to the Hebrews in their wilderness wanderings, and to my own personal temptations springing from the Evil One’s well-worn playbook.

Fasting in this season is teaching me about surrender, contentment, and helping me understand my own unhealthy coping mechanisms. When Jesus was done with His testing in the wilderness, He launched into His ministry with spiritual vigor. I wonder what God might choose to launch me into at the end of this season. On the other hand, perhaps this season is not about launching anything but my own spiritual health. Fasting is teaching me about surrendering my own desires and expectations. If this season is about nothing more than me relearning some valuable spiritual lessons, then I’ll be as content with that as I am with the simple portion that is all I need.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Reflections on a Sneeze

October 24, 2019 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?'”

“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.'”
Zechariah 7:5, 9-10 (NIV)

I was thinking about sneezing the other day. On a plane, heading down the runway amid the thunderous roar of the jet engines, I sneezed. A couple of seats over, a man who was obviously from a different culture and who was embroiled in what he was doing stopped what he was doing, looked at me, and said, “Bless you.”

“Blessing” someone who sneezes can be traced at least to the first century AD. There are many legends as to the motivation of its invention. History records that Pope Gregory I issued a command amidst the plague of 590 that anyone sneezing be blessed, as it was a common, early symptom of the plague. I find it fascinating that no matter where I am in the United States if a person sneezes then complete strangers will proactively, verbally offer a blessing to them. It’s a fascinating cultural ritual.

Back in the days of Zechariah, it was a common ritual to observe disasters with a period of fasting that might include saying or singing certain prayers of lamentation. When Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple were destroyed and the Hebrew people were taken into exile, they began observing a ritual fast each year that corresponded with the month of their city’s destruction. This continued each year for 70 years.

In today’s chapter, exiles have returned and Jerusalem and the Temple are being rebuilt. The people come to the Temple and inquire whether or not they should continue their ritual fast.

God’s reply through the prophet Zechariah is first to question the motivation of those who are fasting. “Why are you doing this?” God asks. “Are you doing it for me, or has it become some personal religious pageant to show how “good” you are?” God then pointedly offers what His heart’s desire is:

“Treat one another justly.
Love your neighbors.
Be compassionate with each other.
Don’t take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor.
Don’t plot and scheme against one another—that’s evil.”
Zechariah 7:10 (MSG)

In other words, it’s like saying to “Mr. Bless You” on the airplane, “Why did you just say ‘Bless you’ to a stranger from whom you just hoarded all the overhead bin space so he had to gate check his carry on? Do you really care about the person who sneezed, or is your ‘Bless you’ just a rote ritual that isn’t about being a blessing at all?” [Note: The nice dude on my plane didn’t steal my overhead bin space, I’m just using the example as a parable.]

This was the exact message that Jesus came to proclaim:

“The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.
“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next.
Matthew 23:2-6 (MSG)

One of the reasons that Christendom has been criticized, and rightly so, is that for centuries we’ve been great at making religious, ritual displays while flatly refusing to do the right thing by others. I can’t think of a better example than the Roman Catholic church’s gross mismanagement of the sex abuse scandals and refusal to deal with it as it was happening for decades.

But, that’s an easy target. In the quiet this morning, I confess that what is hard is for me to honestly examine my own heart, my own life, and my own religious rituals. I write blog posts. I stand up and teach others. I put my faith on public display. So what? Why do I do it? And, will I write nice words this morning only to go out into my day and take advantage of a client, treat an employee contemptuously, refuse to help a stranger in need? Do I worry so much about income, status, and possessions that I offer nothing of tangible value to others in need of real love, kindness, mercy, justice, and compassion?

Important questions for me to ponder as I walk out of my hotel room this morning.

Bless you, my friend. Seriously. Bless you. Thanks for reading.

Chapter-a-Day

Refining and Revelation

July 18, 2019 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
Daniel 10:2-3 (NIV)

This past Sunday I had the privilege of giving the message among our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. One of the things our team of teachers has been grappling with of late is a continued season in which we are experiencing an unusually high number of deaths. From young to old, from expected to unexpected, and from natural to painfully tragic, we have had almost two hundred families touched by death in two years. It has been a long season marked by grief that seems to continue. We are going through the very human experience of trying to process and find understanding within it.

The last half of the book of Daniel is a record of dreams and visions that he had. It’s easy to get caught up in the details of the strange images inside. It all seems as confusing as an acid trip for even learned readers. I find that most people bail on it quickly and move on.

I have learned along the way, however, that some of the great lessons I’ve discovered in my perpetual journey through God’s Message are not in the details but in the macro perspective when I step back and get a handle on what’s happening on the landscape of the chapter. Today is a great example.

Daniel’s strange visions are not unique to him during this period of history. Ezra and Ezekiel were other Hebrews in the same exile experience having eerily similar visions and visitations of a fantastical nature. They were all experiencing a particularly painful time of being captives far from home. They were all in mourning for their people, their home, their culture, and their faith in uncertain times and circumstances. They had spent a lifetime in exile and were eager for a sign or promise that their people would return home from captivity, that their Temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt, and that restoration God promised through the prophets would actually happen (think 90-year-old Cubs fans prior to 2016). In today’s chapter, Daniel had been fasting, praying, and mourning for three weeks before the vision in today’s chapter was given to him.

My takeaway from this is that these dreams and visions were given to a specific group of mourning Hebrew exiles after a long period of suffering and in the midst of a time of intense personal struggle against doubt, despair, and grief.

In the quiet this morning I find myself thinking back to particularly stressful and painful stretches of my own journey. It was in these dark valleys of the journey that very specific and important spiritual lessons and personal revelations came to light. Is there a connection? I believe that there is.

In my message on Sunday, I quoted from Peter’s letters to the suffering believers scattered around the known world. He compares the trials they are experiencing to the way fire refines gold (1 Peter 1:6-7). I have come to believe through experience that it is in the midst of suffering and trial that the non-essential trivialities with which we daily concern ourselves are burned away. When our hearts are broken and our spirits laid bare with suffering we are particularly open to what God described to the prophet Jeremiah (33:3) as “great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

[Note: Speaking of messages, I realized in writing the post this morning that it’s been a while since I updated my Messages page, which I subsequently did for anyone interested.]

Chapter-a-Day

Hats, Fasting, and a Couple of Important Questions

January 8, 2018 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?”
Zechariah 7: 5 (NIV)

Yesterday I had the privilege of leading our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. I was kicking off a series of messages on Paul’s letter to the believers in Corinth. And so, I’ve been mired in studying the letter and the situation in Corinth around 55 A.D. One of the themes that bubbles to the surface over and over again are instructions that Paul gave which are rooted in contemporary Corinthian culture. Other instructions are universal to human culture in all times.

I find myself asking, “What instructions were for the Corinthian believers at that time (that don’t fit our current realities)? What instructions may speak to me in 2018 (that the Corinthians couldn’t fathom almost 2000 years ago)? What instruction are ours (they apply to anyone, at any time, in any culture)?”

For example, one set of instructions is about covering your head. In first century Corinth there were layers of meaning in the cultural and religious aspects of whether you covered your head and when. Some of it came from Jewish law and tradition (which the Greek believers probably thought silly) and some of it was the practical differentiation of woman broadcasting in publicly that she was not one of Aphrodite’s temple priestess-prostitutes.

The truth of the matter is that until a generation or so ago, the tradition of women covering their heads in church and men removing their caps/hats was still a big thing culturally. The local Costume Shop has hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous women’s hats with cute little veils that locals have donated over the years (see featured photo). There was a time just a few decades ago when a woman would not go to church without a hat on. Today, in our culture, if a woman does so it’s simply a fashionable novelty.

Likewise, my dad and I have a good-natured, on-going feud when we’re gathered for family meals and it’s time to pray and eat. My dad gives me grief if I have a cap on. I have never been able to discern a good reason for having to remove my hat when the family is informally ordering a pizza and watching the game. I joke with my dad that it’s actually more sanitary if I keep my cap on. He always wins the argument on his authority and my respect, but I’ve still never heard a good reason.

The bottom-line question is: “Why (or why not) are we doing this?”

That was the exact question God had for the prophet Zechariah. Zechariah and company inquired of the Lord whether they should continue to observe traditional months of fasting. God replied, “Why are you fasting?” God then goes on to point out that what Zac and the boys are not doing are things like being just, showing compassion to people who are different, looking out for the needs of orphans, widows, and the oppressed. The implied question God is asking as I read between the lines is this: “Why would I care if you self-righteously starve yourself in some public display of your religiosity when you’re missing the heart of what I desire from you — to love others as you love yourself?”

Good question, and a good question for those of us who claim to follow Jesus and have wrapped ourselves in religious traditions of all kinds over the years.

“What does God care about? What, therefore, should I really care about? What in my religious practices, rituals, and cultural rules do I make a higher priority than the things God truly cares about?

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jonah 3

February 23, 2012 Tom Vander Well 3 Comments

The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. Jonah 3:5 (NLT)

Wendy’s brothers have all served in the military. Her youngest brother just went through the rigor of basic training a year or so ago. Since my side of the family has, for the most part, never been big on military service I have found it interesting to observe. I’ve been knocked out by the transformation in Wendy’s young sibling. The methodical process of discipline and denial has had visible benefits that go beyond the mere physical.

It is, perhaps, a bit of synchronicity that today’s chapter comes on the day after Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Lent is the season of “preparation” before the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection which lasts for 40 days. The number 40 is not insignificant. The number appears throughout God’s Message and history:

40 days of rain in the flood
40 days Moses was on the mountain before God gave him the law
40 years of wandering in the wilderness for Moses and his followers
40 days Jesus fasted in the wilderness
40 days after the resurrection Jesus was seen publicly before his ascension

These are just a few of the examples, along with the example in today’s chapter in which the people of Nineveh fasted and repented for 40 days to seek God’s mercy.

There is no magic in “fasting” or the act of denying yourself of something, but there is a process of spiritual formation that takes place. When, for a period of time, we deny ourselves and focus our hearts and minds on the things of God it becomes like spring training for our souls. It is spiritual boot camp and, like Wendy’s brother, you never emerge from boot camp unchanged in some way.