A Fasted Life

I remember reading something in a book written by a great Bible teacher. He said that God had led him to lead a fasted life. He refrains from eating as much as he wants every day. I never forgot it. I read it years ago.

I read a fasting manual this morning. I was fascinated by what the writer referred to as a 'Fasting Zone.' They wrote, "The best way to describe your Fast Zone is that it's the place where you feel light and spiritually in tune. Your mind is easily focused on God and spiritual things. You have increased spiritual energy-you can feel the fast working." It went on to explain how to stay in your Fast Zone by the things you eat and the foods you eliminate from your diet.

I was thinking about the concept of a Fast Zone and the concept of leading a fasted life.
Shouldn't we want to always be at a place where we 'feel light and spiritually in tune?' Shouldn't we always want our minds to be easily focused on God and spiritual things?" Isn't this the way we are to live?

Sugar, coffee, white flour, caffeine, etc. can muddy the quality of the blood that runs through our veins, and so affect the way we feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

What muddies the Water of Life in our Spirits?

The viewing of violent movies?
Participating in gossip?
Being too busy?
Reading romance novels?
Avoiding fellowship?
Eating poorly?
Not eating the Bread of Life?

What do you think?

I read the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman this morning.
When He got to the well, He was hungry and tired.
But by the time He had talked with the woman
and offered her living water,
He wasn't hungry anymore.

The disciples implored, "Eat, Rabbi, eat!"
And He said, "I have food to eat which you do not know...
My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work."

When we fast,
we shouldn't think so much about what we are not eating
and what we are not doing.
It's true,
that fasting is a holding back from our regular food
and activities.

But, like Jesus,
we should focus on doing the will of Him
who sent us to earth for such a time as this
to finish His work.

We should drink and eat the positive foods
like water and juice and fruits and vegetables
instead of thinking about the negative foods
that we are fasting from.

We should think about putting into our spirits
the Word of God,
and view worthwhile movies and read spiritual books,
and speak well of others and pray for them.

We fast from ourselves, our will, and who we are.

He must increase.
We must decrease.

And it happens at the same time.
The more He increases
the more we'll decrease.
And the more we decrease
the more He'll increase.

And soon, hopefully,
we won't think about ourselves at all
and we'll just want Him.

That's what I'm holding out for anyway.

Zeal

"And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves,
and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords,
He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" Then His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for Your house has consumed Me.'" (John 2:14-17)
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Zeal for God's house had eaten Him up.
And His zeal for God's house remains to this day.

What kind of tables is He about to overturn in
our temples?

To whom will He be directing the words,
"Take these things away!
Do not make My Father's house
a house of ________!

For that matter,
what will He say to me personally,
for I, too, am a temple of God.

What kind of chaos will He create
in order to rid my life
of the things I have allowed in
my body, soul, and spirit?

It's scary to think about.
Jesus.
Sweet Jesus?
With a whip in His hand
overturning our own way of
doing things
and demanding that we rid
our temple of that which
does not honor Him?!

Will we recognize Him?
Or will we think the upheaval
is caused by the devil
or by a fellow believer?

We must not lose sight
of His zeal
when we hear the crack of His whip
and the roaring of His voice.

We must remember that He chastens
those He loves
when we experience
the turning of tables in our midst.

But we don't have to wait until He shows
up with a whip to straighten some things
out in our lives.
We know what to do
and what not to do.
We know what's right and wrong.

So we should do what we know to do
ahead of time
because there will be plenty of blind spots
that show up when He comes in His zeal
and we'll be busy enough
humbling ourselves and cleaning up the mess
after the tables are turned
and the whip has done its work.

I'm a little bit scared, to be honest.

But since He is coming back
for a glorious church,
without spot or wrinkle,
then He must do
what He must do.

Another Story

I wrote down the number poems for Lindsay
and now my mind has traveled back in time.

I was teaching kindergarten at a
Christian school
in Lititz.
I was 23 years old and this was my fourth
year of teaching. I was teaching music part time as well.

In November of 1981,
a young man had asked me out
to see 'The King and I.'
He didn't really give me an option.
He just told me to save the date.
Turns out he had the wrong date.
The play was the following week,
but that's another story.

In January of 1982,
I was outside with the students
on recess duty.
Snowballs were flying hither and yon
and it was dangerous to be an adult
if you wanted to stay warm and dry.

Suddenly,
this same young man showed up.
He wanted to take a little walk across the yard.
I play by the rules
and was reluctant to leave my charges,
but I took a few hesitant steps away
from the flying snow.

"Will you marry me?" he asked.
"Are you serious?" I asked incredulously.
"Well, I'm not joking," said he.

I was struck dumb.
Literally.
I herded the children back inside.

A young mother came to celebrate
her child's birthday.
She brought out decorated cupcakes
and balloons
and chaos reigned
because I was speechless.

My young man was causing
quite a ruckus.
He was giving piggy back rides
to the little boys
and teasing the little girls
and it took me a month
to get order back into the classroom
but that's another story as well.

Finally, it was time for the wild things
to go home.
Unfortunately,
one little boy seemed to recognize
the intent of the young man
and he had already claimed me for his own.
His jealousy caused him to miss the bus
and we had to wait for his
ticked off father to come pick him up.

Then Phil took construction paper and
covered the door window
and talked to me a little bit.
And then I said, "Yes."
We were married 7 months later.
But that's another story.