So my best friend Janelle reminded me that I have this thing where I explode onto paper with so many thoughts that maybe I should split them up more, because they get really long.So from now on, each day I'll do one post with my daily ramblings, and one post with the daily prayer guide book I'm following. This way people can pick and choose what they want to read, and if you just want to follow the devotionals and do your own fast you don't have to hear me talk for so long. :-)
Today I decided that I wanted to introduce Daniel and his fast. It comes from a few places, I think. Mostly Daniel 1, and then later in Daniel he speaks also of fasting for 3 weeks (21 days). But here's where the idea of just fruits and vegetables comes from-
Essentially Daniel goes to a a new place to be trained to serve in the king's palace. The king brings in a bunch of boys who are pretty and smart and decides to keep the ones who are the best. They are given choice foods and wines, but Daniel finds issue, in one way or another, with "defiling" himself with the food, and asks to be served something more simple. The guard puts up a fight, and Daniel makes a deal with him.
Just give us the simple food for 10 days, Daniel says, and compare us to the others. If we are worse off, then we'll go to eating what you want us to eat.
In 10 days, though, Daniel and his friends looked healthier than the others. And so they are allowed to continue their diet of vegetables and water over choice foods and wine.
Not only that, but (possibly two weeks) later the king finds that Daniel and his friends are "ten times better" than anyone else in the whole kingdom on every matter of wisdom. And so he chooses them to stay and serve in the his court.
The verse says that God gave them knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And to Daniel, God gave the gift of understanding dreams and visions.
So what does this mean people people doing the Daniel fast now? The Daniel fast isn't about starving. Sure, you'll feel awkward and uncomfortable for a while when you adjust to no sugar or caffiene, and you'll probably lose a little weight from not eatting fatty foods or a lot of carbs. But it is, more or less, fairly healthy. Daniel and his friends looked healthier than the others.
Sometimes we forget that a lot of what we put into our bodies isn't good for us. And that's why Daniel requested simple foods over that of extravagence. He disagrees with defiling his body with overindulgence. But, at the same time, he acknowledges the importance of feeding himself.
In a lot of ways, I think the Daniel fast (at least to me) is about both cleansing and moderation.
1. A little on cleansing...
Fasting, as I've mentioned before, cleans your body out. It increases your immune system, naturally gets rid of poisons and toxins, etc. The Daniel fast is a prolonged period where we consciously keep a lot of things that are not always good for our bodies out of our system. And then we adjust.
What's so important about being clean?
The way I think about it, just like you don't usually invite the world over to your apartment when you can't see the floor in your bedroom and havn't done the dishes in weeks, you can't fully invite God into you if your mind and body arn't clean. The bible in many places shows us that God cannot be in the presence of sin, even. When we are defiled in some way, we are keeping ourselves away from the fullness of God.
And as we see in the Daniel verse, the mind and the body are connected in a lot of ways. Once they had begun to cleanse and discipline their bodies, their minds worked better. they understood things. They could focus and make sense of literature, learning, and even dreams. and that's pretty sweet.
2. a little on moderation...
Janelle and I talked briefly today about how her own church is calling them to fast for 10 days. We talked about how she wants to do less and more of things, but not extremes. She wants to ride the bus three times a week, but not fully give up her car. Things like that. That, in a lot of ways, is how I see fasting Daniel style. You give up food/drinks, but you still eat and you still drink.
Moderation is acknowledging that too much and too little both don't serve God. Too much and we grow lazy; too little and we grow weak.
Moderation reminds us that we need, but we often cling to too much.
I am always reminded of moderation in some amazing song lyrics by artist Derek Webb. He, if you don't know him, has an amazing gift of discernment and calling people out for the right reasons.
His song A New Law calls out Christians for being scared of their own agency, yet encourages them in the end by saying "Do not be afraid."
But the part that struck me the first time were the lines:
"Don't teach me about moderation and liberty,
Just give me a shot of grape juice."
Just give me a shot of grape juice."
We don't live in black and white. Just because we know too much of something is bad doesn't mean that none of it is good. God sees beauty in and calls us to moderation in many things; love your family, but don't love them more than you love me. drink, but don't get drunk. fast, but also feast. cry. laugh. mourn. celebrate. work. rest.
Balance.
Pushing a little deeper than Derek, Sherwin reminded me of a great bible passage on moderation today too:
Prov. 30 7-9
"Two thing I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lie far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD?'
or I am become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God."
The key to Godly moderation I think is the fact that we shouldn't be fully dependant on anything but God. And as such, finding a healthy balance of things brings us closer to our father.
Which is the point of fasting. I'm limiting to set my hunger, my wants, my yearnings elsewhere. Towards my God. The Daniel fast helps clean our bodies, and in turn, our minds and our souls. It helps us say I need food, but I don't need so much excess, when I can turn to and depend on my God instead to fill me up in those ways.
So, I guess, in a lot of ways, I want God to replace all the silly things I try to revitalize myself with- caffiene and sugar rushes, dessert breaks to help me slow down and relax, gum and cheese-its to keep me focused while I write during the day.
God should be my energy. He should be my rest. And he should be every little thing in between that I rely on to get through and enjoy all my days.
And when it comes down to it, caffiene is a pretty cheap substitute for the revitalization of my spirits through God.
When you think about it that way, fasting doesn't seem so tough at all...
Day 2- fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, leftover vegetables for lunch, and now i'm going to make myself a nice bowl of mashed potatoes and peas.
No comments:
Post a Comment