In this season of meditation I’ve been fasting. More of a Daniel fast of no meats and sweets for the whole year and lately a fruits/vegetables only fast (but with nut and protein supplements) for 40 days. I’ve had to let some folks know just for the social aspect. It’s interesting people’s response. The first thing is the panic-stricken, “How are you going to get enough protein?!!!” “You’re going to kill yourself!” (not literally but they meant it as ‘you’re going to make yourself sick). You wouldn’t believe how protein focused we are in this country. Yet most of the world only has a protein 2-3x/week where we shoot for 2-3x/day and think it’s unhealthy to do anything different. Strange though. I never get the panic stricken response of, “You’re eating a McDonald’s meal? Are you going to get enough nutrition?!!” It’s assumed that the fast-food burger that has a shelf life of a decade or more (literally) is more nutritious then a temporary diet of fruits and vegetables with protein supplements. Interesting.
Also with my last move I didn’t take a TV. My thought is I want to live life, not watch others do so. Additionally and more importantly I have come to the strong conviction that we weren’t made to handle the bad news of the entire world. Is there a single day that the news headlines don’t scream about a murder, sex scandal, crime, etc…? How can we “think on whatever is holy, pure, good…” etc when this is going through our spirits?
We can’t.
And what I’ve concluded is that people talk so much about what is on the news that I don’t miss a thing. At all. And I trust the Lord to let me know of anything that I might need to know that is important.
Interestingly people flip out with this too. “You don’t want to just stick in your head in the stand” I’ve been told actually quite a few times. Maybe I should respond, “nor do I want to voluntarily stick my head in manure every day.”
God is faithful. For the last year since I’ve stopped reading headlines and internet news, He has kept me in the loop on everything I need to know. And sometimes even more. Sometimes he shows me how to pray.
But it makes me see more clearly how we’ve been duped. Brainwashed. Programmed. And we all know it and think it isn’t in us, but when I see the above responses, it shows itself for what it is.
I just finished reading the book called “7: An experimental mutiny against excess” by Jen Hatmaker. An interesting book that tackles some of these notions. Oh, that we would all wake-up out of the hypnotized state and see with clarity what our culture has clouded.
