A Call to Fast

 I have been intermittent fasting (IF) and occasionally doing long fast since October of this year. I had done this prior to Covid also, as a form of getting some of the issues of my body under control. I have obviously developed arthritis over the years and I was getting to a point where I was daily in pain with inflammation of my joints. The joys of the number 60! So, I started with fasting and doing a Keto diet. 

Let me explain IF. I set up an "eating window" each day. It varies at times depending upon my work/sleep schedule. The window is the time of day in which I can eat. At the start the window is pretty long, usually about 6 hours. When the 6 hours are up, I do not eat anything other than drinking water, coffee, tea, and sometimes broth. Then as time progresses I shorten the eating window and lengthen the time I go between eating times. Occasionally I will throw in a longer fast, "extended fast" which I don't eat for 24-48 hours. I think the longest I have achieved is 48 hours, I hope to do some longer ones again soon. Since my body is healing from a minor surgery, I haven't done an EF for awhile. 

An added benefit to the elimination of the pain in my joints is the weight loss. As I cannot say I have lost a significant amount of weight, I do notice my clothes fitting a bit differently. I also plan to add exercise to my regime in hopes of getting a bit more poundage off. Oh how I wish for warmer days so I can ride the bike that keeps calling my name from the basement. (and yes, it is on a trainer-I can ignore the call quite well)

So, you may wonder, "Why is she writing all of this?" There is a reason and I am sure you were really not expecting this entry to end with this spiritual lesson that I learned just yesterday. 

Often we hear in the church that we should fast. Usually this is a lightly suggested discipline that is rarely practiced, it also usually goes hand in hand with prayer. Most times when people hear the word "fast" they associate that with food and follow that thought with, "Oh, I can't do that!" I understand. I was nervous to start at first, but as time has gone on and with the right timing, fasting from food has become quite easy for me. However, fasting from food has not contributed to a better prayer life. Usually I can pretty much not think about food if I go long enough. In fact, I remember saying a few weeks back that I would really rather sleep than eat, that I got more pleasure from the sleep and rest than from food. But still, nothing really has improved my prayer life related to this type of fasting. 

Yesterday, there was a call for people to "fast "from Facebook for 24 hours.  It had nothing to do with prayer or discipline, but was a tool used to give Facebook a message, hopefully that without millions of participants the spending on there would significantly decrease. When I saw that, I resisted at first. After all, I had a podcast that I needed to drop and the way I do that is on Facebook. I administrate a group of Bible in a year readers that rely on me. I got up early in the morning yesterday, but not early enough to get on Facebook before the 7 am start time. I considered just taking a peek, I resisted. But then it hit me.

I realized in that moment as a bit of panic overcame me, I cannot go on Facebook until tomorrow...OUCH!!!! "How can I do this? I am not sure I can." I began to rationalize, I like looking at my memories, I will miss seeing what I ate for lunch 10 years ago today. I heard my mind wrestling with this thought. What about my reading group? What about getting my podcast done? 

Wow! All of the sudden, fasting took on a whole new meaning in my life. Yes, fasting from food has become routine and doable. Fasting from Facebook became scary and fearful. Just WOW. 

I am not sure if all of you know, I am in a research study for Alzheimer's. I have been doing that for over 15 years now. One of the questions I had to answer several years ago was regarding the future of the study and asked for a person's name they could contact if case things changed in my contact information, etc. As I read that question, I thought, "Just look me up on Facebook, I am always there!"

As I navigated through the day, I found it very challenging to pick up my phone and see the "F" and not click on that little icon that seemed to be calling out to me. I resisted. The sad thing is, even for a brief second it was on because of a link I had touched regarding something else. When I got on I noticed there was a notification where someone who doesn't usually tag me had tagged me. I clicked quickly out of curiosity only to see a very negative post directed toward me. I quickly clicked off and quickly asked God to forgive me for failing, but also I thanked Him for giving me the lesson I needed. That comment was short and probably of little significance in the long run, but I realized how it hurt, like a stab in my chest. A disappointment that a so called friend had no issue with the attack. The realization that this has become the norm on Facebook and that  I was best staying away from the temptation. 

So, great lesson learned. I did find I had more time to do better things yesterday. I finished one book and started another. I unravelled  a knitting project that I needed to start over. I caught up with several friends on the phone whom I needed to share a bit of news (later).  The time off of Facebook afforded me time to do this and really helped clear my mind of the noise and rhetoric of the day. 

Lesson learned: fasting and praying is a great discipline, fasting is not always related to food. I hope to have more victories like this in the near future.