Book Review: Forty Days of Decrease, by Alicia Britt Chole

 

Subtitle: A Different Kind of Hunger, a Different Kind of Fast

Written for a daily devotional for fasting during Lent, this book discusses forty different behaviors and attitudes that we can abstain from. The impetus is that by fasting them, we can decrease their influence on us. Each day has four sections: a discussion of one event in Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem; reflection on the relevant point of that event; a specific behavior or attitude that we can fast; and a short discussion on the historical evolution of Lent from the time of Christ to modern practice. The point of these is that Jesus did not divinely march to Jerusalem in confidence and faith, but that He humanly struggled with obedience to the Father’s plan, without sin.

The grand reduction began when Jesus fasted omnipresence and clothed Himself with flesh. He fasted the worship of angels and accepted the disregard of man. He spent thirty years in obscurity. He chose weakness. He fasted food in the wilderness after His baptism, but He had thirty years experience fasting from and hungering for the presence and glory of God the Father Himself, that He had voluntarily left.

A complete list of the items to fast, in the table of contents, includes (a few examples, there are forty):

•      Tidy faith

•      Fixing it

•      Isolation

•      Spiritual self-protection

•      Neutrality

•      Formulas

•      Escapism

•      Stinginess

•      Spectatorship

One example: fasting premature resolution. Do I make decisions too abruptly, or do I wait too long to make a decision? Jesus said, “My soul is troubled.” (John 12:27) This was in the specific context of the Father’s plan for Jesus to die for the sins of the world, as He contemplated His approaching death. A troubled soul is sometimes the signature of obedience-in-the-making. Obedience is a process, not a moment. We need to discern between two possible causes for our heart to be troubled: fear of the future; or obedience-in-the-making. This takes time spent in discerning the root of our troubled soul. The discernment process may involve questioning, agonizing, and weeping. Fasting premature resolution means going through the process to a conclusion instead of truncating it too early.

Another example: Fasting escapism. The disciples and other believers had varying reactions to shattered dreams after Jesus’ death and burial (before His resurrection). Some were healthier than others. What is your default when spiritually disappointed? Distraction with activity? Drowning in pity? Numbing entertainment? For the health of our soul, we must resist checking out when it looks like God just died. Instead, we need to address God directly and honestly about our pain, and let it remind us that we need to take time to heal, and embrace disappointment as a forward step in spiritual formation.

We are not in Jesus’ place of having left heaven. Yet, we can fast from attitudes and behaviors of the flesh in order to hunger more strongly for His kingdom and to be like Him. The essence of this challenge is that to grow so as to be conformed to His image, natural human behaviors and attitudes must be reduced to create space in us to conform to the divine spiritual kingdom of Jesus. Franklin Hall vividly explained that the power of fasting from food focuses our spirit on Jesus, that then manifests in atomic power with God through miraculous interventions that reveal His glory.  Alicia Chole explains how fasting from natural, human behaviors conforms our heart to become like His, which reveals His glory in a different dimension. What is God’s glory? Ultimately, it is His power to bring the dead to life, and His holiness, which is His authority to overcome and vanquish sin in our lives, to free us to do what He calls us to.