What I learned about "fasting"...

What I learned about fasting...  Hmm...

I stink at it.

Seriously.  It should not have been that hard.  But it was.  Excuses like "Malia is in town and I don't get to have good BBQ that often" actually floated threw my head.  (What?  I live in Birmingham!  I could have good barbeque every day of the year if I wanted!  How ridiculous.)  I came up with all sorts of excuses why I needed to cheat.  And I did.  It was very obnoxious to be in my own head all week.  (If I'm being honest, it's a little obnoxious a lot of the time, actually.)

In all seriousness, here's what the start of this little "experiment," and the prayer and study I have been a part of,  has done for me:

Renewed my awareness of the millions of people who are literally starving (you know, instead of just starving because it's been two hours since I've eaten), enslaved, abused, etc.

Reminded me that Jesus is enough - affection, love, conversation, and (especially for me) validation.

Caused me to recognize that I am, in fact, more like one those entitled snobs that none of us can stand than I thought I was.  I want to be able to eat what I want and when.  I do not want to wait.  I want things to be convenient.  I do not want to stop doing what I'm doing because there is something bigger/more/different outside of me and my Gowing bubble.

I have realized that for all the wheat, whole grain, fresh foods, etc. I feed my family, we are not nearly as healthy as I thought we were.

Let's face it: my body is a temple to the Holy and Risen Lord.  Scripture is clear on this fact.  We do not have to go somewhere and ask someone else to talk to God on our behalf; because that covenant was changed with Jesus, my body is the temple.  Do I always treat it as such?

To that point, does God cringe when I pick up ________ from Publix?  I feel better about the whole wheat blah-blah-blah my kid is eating, but there are still 26 ingredients in it, 14 of which I cannot pronounce.  Is it really what's best?

A woman sitting next to me at Bible study tonight pointed out that when God was chastising the Jewish people in the Old Testament, at least once He called them "arrogant, overfed, and uncaring."  How true today.  So, as we continue in the spirit of a fast (after all, the next week is clothes; I promise I'm not fasting from clothes. No one wants that), I am asking that God open my eyes to the areas where I need to care more.  If my possessions steer my heart (as Jen Hatmaker so aptly put it), I pray I'm using what He has given me for His glory.  Not mine.  In 2 Chronicles 20, God's people fasted with expectation.  I have a lot of expectation.