Sharing a Fast

Abiding in Hope

by

Practicing Faith

Iowa Annual Conference | March 20, 2025

This year, something extraordinary, and quite rare, is happening.

As Rainn Wilson recently noted in his Soul Boom blog,[1] three of the world’s major religious traditions—Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith—are simultaneously observing a season of fasting. Lent, Ramadan, and the Bahá'í Fast are all converging, creating a unique moment of spiritual alignment across faiths.

I was fascinated to learn this when I first read the article on the eve of Ash Wednesday. In a world often divided by religion, this moment of alignment feels like a divine reminder of how much we share. Fasting, in its many forms, is not about deprivation but about recalibration — a chance to loosen the grip of earthly distractions and redirect our hearts toward God and one another.

I’ve had the privilege of worshiping with people of other faiths, including attending prayers with Muslim brothers and sisters. During one of the visits, I even had a chance to share a meal with them following the service. But I’ve never shared a fast with them. How powerful would that be? To not only gather around a table in celebration but to journey through hunger, prayer, and spiritual discipline together? I don’t know any Bahá'í folks personally, but I understand their fast to be directed toward the same sort of thing: it's a time to focus on God and to distance oneself from material things.

As I’ve been reflecting on that, I’ve realized how fasting does something profound — it strips us down to our most basic human longings. Hunger, after all, is universal. So is the ache for meaning. So is the desire for hope, transformation, and renewal. And so is the desire for God, even in our varied understandings.

As Christians, this is what Lent invites us into — a season of intentional emptiness that creates space for God to reveal Godself to us. We give something up not for the sake of suffering but to remind ourselves that we do not live by bread alone. We feel the ache of hunger or longing and turn that ache toward God. It’s a practice of letting go in order to receive.

But how beautiful is it that this year, millions of people across the world are doing the same thing — in different ways, through different traditions, but with a shared purpose of drawing near to the Divine? There’s something quietly hopeful about that.

I wonder what it would be like to lean into that shared hunger — not just metaphorically, but literally. What if I asked my Muslim neighbors if I could join them in fasting for a day during Ramadan? What if I sought out Bahá’í folks in the area and learned what the Fast means to them? What if I allowed my practice of Lent to be widened, not less about God in Christ, but more connected — a reminder that my small act of fasting is part of something larger than myself?

Lent for me has always been about opening space — in my heart, in my life, in my relationship with God. But perhaps it can also open space between myself and my neighbors. Perhaps fasting, with all its discomfort, can become a bridge instead of a boundary.

And maybe that’s the beauty of this rare convergence. While the calendars and practices are different, the heart of it is the same — a longing to be less tethered to our desires and more rooted in something eternal. A desire to become more awake to God’s presence. A hope for renewal, both in ourselves and in the world around us.

So this Lent, I’ll keep my fast. But I’ll also pay attention to the hunger that connects me to my neighbors — the ones I worship with and the ones I don’t. Because maybe, in some mysterious way, God is using all of this collective longing to crack open something new in the world. May it be so. 

Amen. 

[1] https://soulboom.substack.com/p/a-spiritual-trifecta?r=1k6g5&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

The Rev. Brian E. Williams serves as pastor of First United Methodist Church in Indianola, Iowa. "Abiding in Hope" is a spiritual support series written by volunteers in the Iowa Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, Subscribe to Abiding in Hope