This is not complaining. It is testifying.
Yesterday, I woke up and everything was okay. I didn’t sleep that great, but it’s been par for the course ever since we decided to tile our house while living there, with full-time jobs, and three daughters.
Back to the testifying…
I was feeling okay and started working my way through my daily responsibilities. As I was getting the kids ready for school, I instinctively grabbed for some food, but caught myself…remembering it’s Wednesday — fasting day.
I drove my kids to school and came home to clean everything out of some rooms so tile could be laid. Our house became more disarrayed, but for a brief moment, I soaked up how clean and simple and uncluttered the empty room was.
I quickly threw on a nice shirt and jumped on a Zoom call with Karrin Robson, who is running for governor. She wanted to meet with a couple of pastors, and someone told her to talk with me. She told me why she is running and how she feels about Ducey, Biden and Trump. I asked her some questions — mostly fueled by my wife, Brit, who has become politically savvy over the last couple of years. (Brit’s an enneagram 8 and feels the responsibility to make sure people are not getting fooled or manipulated.) Karrin Robson said she was impressed with how informed my questions were and she gave me some good answers. Her answer to my question about faith, politics and a pastor’s role was not very deep so I gave her some more info on that — things like the Christian Church being the single most dominant force for good, no matter where in the world or when in its history — and how the Judeo-Christian ethic has led to the freest, most prosperous societies of all time.
After the call, a slight headache was coming on, so I drank some water and it went away. The hunger pains were minimal and I jumped onto another Zoom call with our teaching team.
That call was really fun and it stirred up some excitement as we plotted and planned our sermon series through the summer. Ryan Romeo, Alec Seekins, and Jeff Gokee and I make up our teaching team currently and I am starting to call them “The Trifecta.”
After that, it was noon and I was definitely feeling some hunger. A mild headache was threatening again, but no big deal. As the hunger feelings would catch my attention I would respond with prayers for what is burdening me these days. As the hunger feelings increased over the next few hours, I began to feel some empathy for those who don’t go without food by choice but because of lack. I prayed for them. This then led me to pray for the ones I know who are hurting for a variety of reasons. Mercy was increasing in my heart.
I was feeling weaker as I unloaded a pallet full of tile at my house. I spent some time prepping for our Wednesday night prayer night and did some studying for my message on Sunday. I called the folks I have been doing some mediation with to share some thoughts and hear some more perspective. I could tell the weakness I felt when I called them affected the way I heard and communicated with them. It is an intense situation, but I didn’t feel the intensity. I felt empathy and the weight of how hurt they are and scared they are.
After this, I picked up my kids and spent some time with them as we got home. They had told me they were going to fast with us on Wednesdays, but they pigged out when they got home without even thinking about it. It made me smile.
The headache on the horizons had now become a marching band inside my head. The only positive thing about it was my headache totally drowned out my hunger feelings.
When Brit got home, we hugged for a long time. She was feeling weak and tired. She hadn’t slept well either and spent the entire day teaching/corralling middle schoolers. We tried to clean our chaotic house a bit. She also spent some time working on her plan for the 30+ 3rd through 5th graders she teaches every Wednesday night at church. (She is amazing)
We headed to church and could not stop thinking about how good soup sounded. Now, with the finish line in sight, the headache and hunger didn’t hold much sway.
The prayer night was awesome. The sanctuary filled with people who had fasted because they want to be more hungry for God than for anything in this world and had taken time on a Wednesday night to pray for people who don’t know Jesus. It was an inspiring thing to be a part of. We also prayed for each other, since we are people who know Jesus but are still trying to have faith over fear and peace in the midst of pain.
As I write this on Thursday morning, the headache is still there, but my heart is so full — encouraged by the encounters with Jesus in the sacred space of fasting hunger — comforted by the unity and righteous hunger of the faith family I am a part of at Living Streams — and hopeful to see people come to know Jesus because of the fasting and praying, serving and sharing we are doing.
David
p.s. if you haven’t started yet, no worries. You can fast next Wednesday and join us at 6pm for soup that will taste almost magical after a day of fasting. Click for details & registration.