#722. Telling someone they shouldn’t tell you about their fast.

A few weeks ago, I went out to dinner with two friends. One of them was doing the Daniel fast. I’m a little fuzzy on the details but I think part of the fast involves not eating lobster. I might be wrong.

When he told me that he was doing a fast, I had a chance to be kind and compassionate and other words that mean, “Not a jerk.” I opted against that and in doing so deserved to be put on blast on Stuff Christians Like. Why do I say that?

Because I said what punk Christians the world over do when someone tells them they are on a fast:

“You shouldn’t be telling me that you’re on a fast. That’s the whole point of the fast.”

Not only did I say that, but I followed it up with, “The Bible says that if you tell men about your fast, their praise will be your reward instead of a reward from the Lord. Sooo, good job buddy, there’s your Jon-sized reward. It’s like you had a Price is Right final showcase with a Corvette and RV and instead you chose the showcase with a really nice croquet set in it.”

OK, I didn’t say that last line. That would have been even too judgmental for me, but I did give him a hard time. I did do the injustice of throwing out the, “whoa, you just ruined the fast by talking about it” sentence. But to tell you the truth, he got me back.

In a moment of unbelievable amateur hour, for some reason we let our friend who was on the Daniel fast pick the restaurant. What a mistake. I’m assuming that part of the Daniel fast is that you have to eat warm, flavorless meals, because that’s exactly what we got. We were in Michigan at the time and the dinner was supposed to be a classic “Upper Peninsula” meal. I’ve never been to the U.P. but unless they are stuffing tasteless, nameless meat and vegetables into oven mitts and eating them, I think I might have been ripped off.

Moral of the story? Don’t tell you friend not to tell you about his fast.

What’s your take on fasting? Have you ever fasted?