Fasting isn’t a religious add-on. It’s a road back to Eden.

In this episode, we begin where the story begins... Genesis 2:17, the first boundary, the first “no,” the first invitation to trained desire. The ancient church called this asceticism. It's not self-hatred, but soul-training: learning to want God more than comfort, more than control, more than constant consumption.

St. Basil the Great said, “It is because we did not fast that we were banished from paradise. So let us fast that we may return to it.” That’s the heartbeat of this episode: fasting as homecoming... healing the grasp, clearing the inner noise, and recovering the ability to walk with God again.

And we face the modern impulse to bypass this “trained way.” Eugene Peterson puts it bluntly: “Peter rejected the ascetic way by offering Jesus a better plan… and received the sternest rebuke in the Bible."

If Eden feels far, this one is for you.