And now about all this stuff...

Hi fellow Seven'ers!

That was a great meeting with great food and great conversation!  Thanks for sharing everyone.   I am actually excited as we move into phase two and start the dialog about stuff.  I think it was stuff and our accumulation of it that first drew me to this idea personally.  

For some reason I have always been particularly bothered about the parable of the rich man who was very clever.  By my standards,  he is clearly a prosperous and clever man doing well for himself but God seems to have a very different view.  I think I have for some time now lived in a state of wondering at what level is health - how much is enough,  how much is too much,  at what point am I ceasing to be in the world and am instead consuming my way into being of the world.  I think the poison of this is that it is not just in the stuff,  or the earnings, or even in the money itself - it is what all of those things do to the heart.  This passage never says the status of this rich man's salvation,  but I think we should consider it dire warning enough that Jesus (God Himself!) said, 'Foolish man'!   It is clear the message that the body and the circumstances may still be alive,  but the danger is that the heart could have died, and the spirit be condemned long before...

Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. People do not get life from the many things they own.” Then Jesus used this story: “There was a rich man who had some land. His land grew a very good crop of food. He thought to himself, ‘What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger barns! I will put all my wheat and good things together in my new barns. Then I can say to myself, I have many good things stored. I have saved enough for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!’ “But God said to that man, ‘Foolish man! Tonight you will die. So what about the things you prepared for yourself? Who will get those things now?’ “This is how it will be for anyone who saves things only for himself. To God that person is not rich.” (Luke 12:15-21 ERV)

Hi

Ok I'm in. Looking forward to next weeks fast. We will let you all know soon what we are doing.

Food Fast - Day 4 - the Goodwin's

Brenna, Nic, Hi!  Thanks for the post...you are the first adventurer(s) to do so!  Yes,  Alanna and I agree that it is important to start paying attention to what you consume.   Food seems to be all around us, but real food, seems increasingly difficult to come by.  In Defense of Food is brilliant - after taking in Polan's ideas you can't help but be fired up about going back to real food rather than continue to soak in a sea of processed foods, GMO's, and high-fructose corn syrup!!!

Today I woke up feeling good.  Though the headaches persist, the excitement of living in this simpler way felt invigorating.   This was the first day where I sensed that it was no longer purely a mental battle over whether or not to continue and instead felt a tug to worship and ask for the Lord's movement in this tiny space created by my divestiture from luxury eating.  In context, this fast seems infuriatingly small - and I say infuriating because it is taking so much effort to open up such a small space,  I almost feel silly.

Everyone stay strong!  God is in this and even if it feels like it is going nowhere,  He will faithfully change us, lead us, and make something amazing out of our little leap of faith.  I just know it!

Blessings all,
A.G.

from Brenna Wilson

Hello everyone! So for this week Nic and I are doing different fasts. I'll let him explain his in another blog post. I am giving up a few things this week. I tried to think of what would be a sacrifice for the week. First, I'm only cooking with what we have. No grocery shopping. Also, I am giving up alcohol, snacking in the evening when the kids go to bed, and lunch. 

It's funny because I thought giving up lunch would be the hardest but I love having a snack and drinking a glass of wine when the girls go to bed.  This is actually the first time I have fasted.

In doing in the read in the book, I'm glad she touched on giving more thought to what we are actually putting in our bodies because they are a temple. As much as this isn't a diet but putting more consideration into how we are actually eating is important. It was interesting to read the laws God had laid out about eating pure vs impure animals. Btw, I highly recommend not only reading In Defense of Food but Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbera Kingsolver is an amazing book about this subject as well.

Above all it was good reminder that we are doing this fast to create a margin for God to move.  

I am looking forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday!

Food Fast - Day 3 - the Goodwin's

Today is rough.  Today my head hurts.  Today I am battling back and forth between what this is about and why.  Today I feel non-spiritual and my memory about why this is important feels fuzzy.

It has occurred to me that I need to return to the habit of breath prayers so that I can more quickly combat these doubts and desires.  I think the beat of today's prayer drum might have to be simply: 'Lord have mercy on me' on the inhale and with the sigh of exhale 'i don't think I can keep doing this'.

I have noticed my sense of smell is sky-rocketing.  I have also noticed that things I have not craved in years popping into my head like they are spiritual revelations unto themselves.  I am also noticing things as I pass them by and think, 'oh I could go for....nope'.  Not today.

Alanna is feeling demoralized at the revelation that we are likely completely and hopelessly hooked on caffeine.  Speaking of drums and bands,  she has one inside each side of her forehead competing to see who can pound on the sides of her head the hardest.  I don't think I am in as much pain as Alanna is,  but I too have a bruiser of a headache going.  Humorously,  on the health front,  I don't think I have been this well hydrated in months!

My one spiritual thought on this long day has been that I really need God.  I am hapless and helpless after only 2.5 days I have completely run out of my own desire to continue.  I think I speak for both Goodwin's when I say we are now out to the 'leaning on God' phase of this process.  As I walked to my car after work tonight, I had to smile at the thought that I am like an Israelite living off of manna in the desert.  I am perfectly well nourished.  I am healthy and strong and able to make it through the day and yet,  merely be severely shortening the list of items I have access to I am feeling disgruntled, deprived, and thrown off my game.

Tomorrow will be better.  Now off to see my family and enjoy a creatively construed meal of chicken breast, sautéed spinach leaves, and mashed sweet potatoes.  So good.

P.S. - I never knew how much I liked hard-boiled eggs with salt and whole wheat bread toasted with nothing on it.  Those are my two favorite things right now - there like my luxury items!.  Today at my desk more than once I wanted that piece of dry whole wheat toast so much it made my mouth water, and at lunch, Alanna had packed me one hard-boiled egg in this tiny little see-through rubbermaid container and I was so pumped when I got it out of my lunch sack!  Thank you little ovoid friend.

Blessings,
A.G. 

Food Fast - Day 2 - the Goodwin's

Monday, November 11 - Day 2 - Breakfast, while eating an (actually and completely) amazing breakfast of a piece of bread, an egg, and some slices of avocado piled in the form of a little open-faced sandwich it suddenly occurred to me that the list of ingredients we are choosing is incredibly similar to the list of ingredients in the Passover meal (compare to http://chabad.org = > 'seder').  The one exception I think are the bitter herbs…wait…there is my tea).

This thought was very invigorating and gave me a great jolt of joy as I realized we are communally participating in this fast while rolling straight into the holiday season!  December first is the first day of Advent and the season when we celebrate the coming of the Paschal (Passover) Lamb of God the fulfillment of what Israel both commemorated (leaving Egypt) and anticipated (waiting for Messiah) every year at the Passover.   That person is Jesus!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  The thought that He is so loving us and so wanting us to know Him that without realizing it we are walking into God's reality for a season BY eating His menu is really life-giving at many levels!  This is going to be happy early Passover week.  Now the holidays can really begin = ).

AG.

Food Fast - Day 1 - the Goodwin's

Fast - Day One

Monday, November 11, 2013

9:19 AM

Sunday November 10th - Day 1 - I was irritated at what I had agreed to.  Not right off but by night-fall when I was starving from having eaten only nutritional 'snacks' all day.

We simply chose to go with the 7 items the author chose and see how workable it was.  (eggs, chicken, spinach, whole wheat bread, avocados, apples, and sweet potatoes - salt, pepper, and olive oil the only cooking/prep ingredients allowed).

Along with the limitation of the 7,  we decided that on the liquids side that juice, coffee, and alcohol were also right out (sorry joe, sorry beer, wish you were here! I know you represent both mornings and bread as they were meant to be…but this is a fast).  Our one liquid luxury item is non-caffeinated herbal tea.  I hate herbal tea.  I drank a couple pots throughout the afternoon and evening it tasted so good.

At dinner time Alanna made us a great feast of a piece of roasted chicken, some sautéed spinach leaves, and mashed sweet potatoes.   That was fantastic and my sense of well-being was restored.  We typically and unhealthily drink copious amounts of coffee in the morning while washing down the occasional piece of toast and bi-monthly multi-vitamin.  At lunch Alanna usually scrounges for whatever is clever and I eat (9 days out of 10) these huge black-bean and brown rice burritos with ridiculous amounts of cheese, sour cream, fresh habanero salsa, and escabeche incorporated into a ramalade of goodness.

Humor about what I am not getting aside;  I really have a sense of well-being and sense that God is in this.  One of the first and keenest reprimands that we have run into is our verbiage - I immediately (without realizing it) began talking about the fast in terms of all the things I could not have.  Alanna jokingly said to me, "its about the choosing not to have,  not that you 'can't' have it!".   That thought cut right to the quick and I realized I had already failed miserably in my attempt to be a modern-day participant in a fast that bore witness to others suffering, that contemplated a simpler way to live - and had immediately reverted back to my first check-down,  going right back to my favorite thought pattern of empowered entitlement, "I might not have it right now… but that is only because this fast says I can't …but I could have it if I wanted to!".  It is interesting that my first response has been to turn the fast into my enemy and accuse it if victimizing me and taking away what I treasure.  This is clearly a deception, and the opposite of what we are learning that fasting is opening up and freeing in our lives.

To explain further the earlier comment that I feel like God is in this - I sense what I like to refer to as my 'spiritual wits' are already sharper.  I have had an immediate uptick in the sense of joy that God is listening and honoring the process - almost as if the mere decision to try to fast is when He started moving in response - not just yesterday morning when we actually kicked off  the fast.  First,  upon waking and facing the fast for the first time - I actually received a dose of gratitude and joy (early church saints would have referred to it is as a 'consolation') when I realized the day before at family functions we had eaten gluttonous crazy-bad for us food and the idea of walking into God's space by way of eating healthy, natural, God-made foods sounded really invigorating.  In response I happily made a piece of dry cracked-wheat toast with nothing on it and munched on it while mulling this new contrast over.  By evening having raked a ton of leaves, helped out at a school, run into some old friends, made some new, and prayed with multiple persons it was very clear to me that the Holy Spirit was streamlining some things for me…rather than it all being hard and awkward,  His reality that was already there was quickly coming into sharper focus for me - making each interaction and moment to be more naturally about Him.  Fasting is for so much more than mere self-discipline - it is learning to worship the living God by way of our bodies - the act of eating or not-eating does not draw us either nearer to or further from God (does not make us more or less holy).  Instead the act of choosing to fast, by way of physical bodies,  frees us up to better understand that movement and grace of God that is already at work.  God is always at work,  always about His plans of redemption in and all around us (this is referred to as His prevenient will).  Fasting is a purposeful choosing into recognizing what it is, and how He is accomplishing His will.  In short,  we are learning to worship Him with our bodies and the senses He gave us.