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.