Saturday, August 27, 2011

Before I Go

Imagine that you were going to fast from sugar for one month. Would you spend the last few days before the fast weaning yourself off of sweets or over-indulging in them?

I hoped I'd be a wean-er. It turns out I'm an over-indulge-er. Lapping up literature. Wallowing in words. Packing in the paper-backs.

I am (comme habitude) currently in the middle of three different books. In addition, I just joined a book club on Facebook, and even though I won't be able to participate in their on-line discussions during the month of September, I 'd really like to read the September book selection BEFORE I start my fast. So that makes four books that I want to finish in four days. Which, actually, would not be a problem except for the fact that we are just about to move. So seeing as we have to pack up all of our belongings and put them into storage during those same four days, I  may not finish reading all these books that I have started. But I'm sure gonna try!

(Out of curiosity, not to split hairs or anything, but do knitting pattern books and cook books count as "reading"? What about the backs of cereal boxes?)

I can't imagine what it will be like to NOT read or write for a month. It may be one of the oddest things I ever done, and that is coming from a woman who has had her nose pierced! Yet, I am excited to do it. Excited to see how God shows Himself to me when I spend a greater part of my day actually looking for Him.

In one of my favorite episodes of M*A*S*H, Hawkeye, a surgeon,  temporarily loses his sight. While his eyes are bandaged, he gains a whole new consciousness. For example, he spends an entire morning just listening to rainstorm, delighting in the experience.  He discovers that while being blind has its obvious limitations, it also has many surprising advantages.

I suppose that I, too, hope to gain a new consciousness--or maybe a deeper awareness--of the Lord. He often reveals Himself to me through both reading and writing, but perhaps I have become so dependent on those venues that I am missing out on others. I wonder what He will show me.

How does the Lord show Himself to you?

3 comments:

  1. Your fast brings to mind something Mother Maggie said at the Leadership Summit.
    "Silence your body to listen to your thoughts. Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart. Silence your heart to listen to your spirit. Silence your spirit to listen to His Spirit within you. There is where you hear God."
    Looking forward to hearing what God says to you.

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  2. I just found your blog, and now I must wait a month to enjoy it. I guess I will have to go back and read previous posts...sorry.

    May your time of verbal fasting, be an amazing time of listening to our Lord.

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  3. its an amazing decision that you've made about taking sugar out of the equation. but i'm cusious thou. are you talking about ridding yourself of processed sugar or you're talking about sugar in general.

    getting rid of processed sugar from your life is the best decision because it will take care of a lot of health problems that could develop overtime and that is a known fact that sugar causes a lot of health issues.

    keep up the good work and you'll be happy when you see the difference in you without sugar in your diet. :)

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