We're almost halfway through! Praise God for all that God has done. Even if you haven't felt anything but crabby from lack of caffeine or annoyed by missing your favorite treats, God is working in you and God will honor your gift of love.
I looked out my bedroom window today and was so excited to see small green leaves and tiny white flowers on the tree outside. It seems like overnight the trees went from barren to buds to beginning flowers. All day, when I drove by flowering trees or bushes I was struck by the sudden beauty that is breaking out all around.
The flowering trees reminded me of how often I live in the future, my mind always running one or two steps ahead (or one or two thousand steps ahead!) of where I am and what I'm doing. At a meeting yesterday, several of the people who shared parts of their journey mentioned their desire to live in the present and concentrate of what God has for them right here, right now.
And isn't this the gift of fasting - the gift of being fully present and in the moment? When our stomach growl, when we intentionally choose or decline a specific food, when we shop with care at the grocery store, we are being fully present. Fasting takes us out of autopilot, when it's so easy to run ahead of ourselves, and back into what is happening in the moment.
1 Samuel 14:24-30 contains a little known story about fasting that highlights the challenge and the gift of living in the moment. When the army of Israel, who is tired and hungry, enters the forest and finds the honey all over the ground, they must have been famished. They wanted to eat. But they were preparing for a large battle, and the admonition to fast was to prepare them for what lay ahead. But I also think that the admonition to fast was a way to ensure that the army lived in the moment. When they were fasting, they were thinking about how to avoid the lure of food. Their minds were occupied by what they faced right there and right then. If they weren't fasting, the soldiers minds would have raced to what they might face - anxiety, fear, unearned bravado or doubt may have taken hold of their mind.
When the army fasted, they didn't worry about what was to come. They focused on what was already here. Jesus said, "Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself" (Matthew 6:34). Live here, live now. Focus on what I am calling you to at this present time. May we claim these words of instruction and blessing right here and right now, in the moment.
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