Recently I spent a day fasting… Well, actually my feet fasted, they fasted shoes! While my feet fasted, I interceded (also known as “standing in the gap” in prayer), metaphorically and literally around Auckland City, New Zealand.
The inspiration for this style of fasting came from a good friend of mine Steps of Justice‘. The idea on day 22 (during the 30-Day Steps of Justice) was that we would not wear shoes to remind us of poverty and people that were not as blessed as we were.
feet in Vanuatu - Deb DeGraaf 2010
On that day that I “stood in the gap”, and in all kinds of things, I had a spiritual experience. As I was walking around my neighbourhood in downtown Auckland, I felt I was connecting in a way I never had before. There was the obvious connection of soft feet on hard concrete but I also started noticing parts of the pavement I have never noticed before, bits with cracks and patches with stones and places with broken beer bottles. I really connected to my surroundings when I used the toilet at Esquires Cafe on K Road and stepped in someone else’s pee. It was sticky too.
There is a sense of nakedness in not wearing a protective layer between my soft un-calloused soles and the concrete that blankets my neighbourhood. Usually you walk barefoot in your own comfortable protected environment, but never in a rough neighbourhood that is known for prostitution, seedy sex stores and drug consumption. During that day I felt like my feet were doing what a person does when they pick up a dirty child and hug it even though he/she is grubby, just because he/she needs some love.
If fasting food scares you or gives you a headache, try this style of fasting. If anything, it is a wake up call of how lucky we are to live in a prosperous part of the world. To do something about this specifically see http://www.toms.com/how-we-wear-them/