Fasting: There is a subtle irony in the concept of fasting, the spiritual discipline of forsaking food or other significant things in order to focus on and spend time with God. In our frenetic, over-stimulated world where everything is so big, convenient, and overblown, the idea of fasting almost always feels like slowing down. When everything is so convenient and accessible, all the time, in any amount, it's really countercultural/counterintuitive, to step away, put down the fork, and stop. Probably more than at any other time in history, our world is in desperate need for the slowing down, the quieting focus of biblically-informed fasting.