digital fast

The "digital fast" is a popular trend. It's the practice of temporarily giving up the usual websites or the usual computerized devices. Since the Bible doesn't cover computers or electric networks, principled opinions rather than doctrines are necessary. Toward that end, here are my generalized remarks for all fasting. Christians who happen to be currently living on Earth shouldn't assume that their digital fasts are that special.

• Fasting from particular things or activities can be a great help for Christians who feel that they're becoming enslaved to anything other than God. That includes digital technology. But it might also include woodcarving, if woodcarving is an obsession that doesn't leave any time for service to the needy. Christians can have a variety of interests, but none can be a rival to God. Compulsive obedience to any competing impulse is a concern.
• A proper fast should refocus attention on heavenly things. The substitutes during the fast must reflect this goal. A fast from chocolate is less impressive when ice cream is the substituted food. In the same way, a fast from one website isn't too beneficial when time spent on a different website takes its place. I once heard the comment, "Fasting without praying more is just starving yourself." People may feel superior by reading unedifying books instead of viewing unedifying television, but they're missing the point. Fasting should be a change in kind of behavior, not a change in degree of behavior.
• Throughout the fast, self-observation is paramount. The desire for the fast's subject will be noticed and rejected repeatedly. Hopefully, these experiences produce insight into the essential futility of that desire: no matter how often it's satisfied, it returns later to demand more. After the fast ends, its success is measured by the change in attitude. For instance, instant relief at the resumption of the item or activity is a side effect of its continued potency. Purposeful reduction of it, once the fast has illustrated its strength, is a more sober response.

Ultimately, the ideal solution to an immoderate craving is not a fast. Fasts are temporary but total eliminations. The better course is to tame the craving and rule it thereafter. Compared to a traditional fast from food, other fasts are a conspicuous symptom of luxury. Christians who have so many fasting choices may be tempted to treat their fasts as another consumer choice or status symbol.

The very question of fasting is an opportunity for Christians to ponder how much they could survive without. Maybe the fast is the chance to examine innermost emotional ties to the world. These ties could need to be sacrificed altogether. Not because sacrifices cause a greater sensation of "spirituality", but because sacrifices are an outgrowth of cultivating different values.