Fasting for Rain?…nah.

My stake will launch a 2nd wave of stake wide fasts this coming month. We’ve all been asked to pray and fast for rain in our area. Last time we did it a few months ago, we received a heavy and unexpected downpour to help our farmers in the dry area.

I will not participate again. I feel it is like asking me to do a rain dance, and I feel the saints are being asked to prop up expectations or recognize God’s mercy when the rain comes, when I am not inspired by the outcome either way. I don’t think it is teaching us the right things.

Also, we got some good rain yesterday…so it was a week early from when we were going to fast?? Nah…unrelated.

I won’t take a stand or make comments to anyone else because I feel others are fine to exercise their faith as they see fit. But fast sunday for me next week will be to comfort family members who found out a member has cancer, and for family members who are sad and need support.

But I won’t join a fast with the stake on rain. I might consider fasting to support farmers who are struggling with rain, or families being evacuated because of fires because it is so dry. But not so that God will open the heavens to make rain come.

Fasting requires faith, and that is my focus of my faith…supporting and loving…not for crickets or rain clouds that sometimes come and sometimes don’t.

Anyone else have thoughts for me on fasting, and if you have in the past participated, positively or negatively, on stake wide rain fasting? How might I see it differently to join the stake for a rain cloud to come?

I have strong feelings about this, but from 2 VERY different perspectives…

1) I hear people over and over pray over their food: “Please bless the less fortunate that they may have their needs met…” It is like a broken record player–vain words as it were. And lately, I have found myself wondering: “What are YOU doing to help less fortunate have their needs met?”.

In my mind, fasting is a way to divert resources to help. Every time I hear of someone who is struggling in the ward, and who needs help (and intervention is given),..I feel a thrill inside BECAUSE I was able to help them. I love that feeling. I LOVE the feeling I get when I get to help push back suffering, stave it off, if only a little. So, for me, the fast-offering is where the magic is.

2) I’ve read in various publications, some recent, that fasting throws significant gene markers in the human body, which triggers a cascade of positive biological changes. If you doubt, read up on Roy Walford and some of the newer findings on short term calorie restriction. Science was in a buzz a few years ago over this.

So, for me, these are the 2 primary benefits of the fast.

I also had a chance to ask my Hindu friend about his fasting, and he said in pretty clear terms that westerners don’t understand the fast at all. In his tradition, fasting is synonymous with clearing your mind so you can think. The Hindu tradition he is following uses the fast regularly as a way to increase intelligence, clarity and mental acuity.

I think you should fast for NO RAIN, and see who wins; you or the rest of the stake! 😆

I was going to try that with football too.

Yes, Holy Cow…you get my point exactly!!

So, for me, these are the 2 primary benefits of the fast.

I respect that, Rob, and like I said, I will be fasting but for something different, to comfort family who are struggling with a new diagnosis of cancer. There is benefit to fasting.

But….for rain?? Is that worthy of my fasting?

As a church, we have historically believed in changing weather patterns through righteous living.

And we seem to predict the end of the world is coming as seen by changing weather patterns.

We like to tell stories.

Perhaps, Holy Cow…the value is in unifying people to wanting it to happen, not in causing it to happen or explaining what happened.

I’m not sure what value that is in football or rain. :think: Think. Think. Think.

And lately, I have found myself wondering: “What are YOU doing to help less fortunate have their needs met?”

You too?

yeppers….

I’m not allowed to pay a fast offering because I’m out. But regardless,…I have several people I really try to help, I really do.

If I have learned anything from being on the outside, it is that the church can be used as a crutch or excuse to discharge our duties when in reality we could and should be doing more directly. Fasting and putting a pittance into the fund can make us feel like we are doing our duty, and yet it may be our next door neighbor is drying up on the vine, both financially as well as emotionally or spiritually. And, when they need help, our attitude is: “Well, they should go see the bishop”…and we ignore them.

I’m so glad the church does everything to succor the weak and feeble because that way all I have to do is pay a tiny fast offering and I did my duty…NOT!

Fasting for blessings is one thing,…getting off your a$$ and doing something to help someone and bringing about a blessing is completely another. I believe solidly in the latter.

Reminds me of a sacrament meeting on fasting. All the speakers told stories about how they fasted and the outcome they sought didn’t happen. The whole thing spelled frustration for me. I personally would be trying to figure out how to create my own irrigation system and praying for insight about how to fund it and make it work.

Reminds me of a sacrament meeting on fasting. All the speakers told stories about how they fasted and the outcome they sought didn’t happen. The whole thing spelled frustration for me. I personally would be trying to figure out how to create my own irrigation system and praying for insight about how to fund it and make it work.

Totally agree….