Last weekend, a very good friend of mine invited me to join
her and three others on a fast. I have done the corporate fasting thing before
= and with Ascension Day been and gone (it was on the 29 May for
those who missed it) and my own birthday (on the 25 May, and yes, I am still
accepting gifts) giving me an opportunity to pause and reflect and seeking to
go deeper on my spiritual walk, I
accepted. The friend said they were doing the Daniel Fast! Ooh, I thought, I’ve
never done that one – bog standard Lenten of eating only once in the evening
was tried and tested, subsisting on water alone a la Esther , for three days
had also been ticked off; sure I nearly fainted, and will probably never try it again, but the
Daniel one, no. Writing this at the end of Day 1 I can safely tell you that I
now know why; it’s a flipping nightmare. And I’ve signed up for 21 days of it.
Words fail me.
“I ate no choice food; no meat or wine
touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until
the three weeks were over” Daniel 10:3
Today, I was pretty much unprepared for the actual fasting;
once I had done a cursory look at my fridge I realised that pretty much
everything in it was either choice food (bread, dairy, pasta) a meat (Smoked
Salmon, assorted cold cuts, a Tupperware of here’s one I made earlier chicken
stock) and let’s not even contemplate the various ‘lotions’ on my dressing
table, that merit a whole paragraph of their own. The fridge inspection left me with very
little choice and in the end lunch today consisted of grated carrot, red cabbage,
lemon and chili flakes, but as seen below Gastrotastic.com styles, plated and
consumed outside the beautiful Farm Street Church things weren’t looking too
bleak. So far, so expensive detox, with window shopping acting as pudding. But as the day progressed and I got more and
more irritable, as a persistent headache refused to shift other things came
into play.
What I soon discovered is how much I have come to rely on
those choice foods to get me through the challenges of life. Of course I pray,
go to church and do the whole bible study thing on a regular, but if I am
honest there are some prayers that I have been sending heavenwards with no
seeming response for so long, that the material, in this case the charcuterie
counter, have proven to be a more reliable point of comfort. JC isn’t listening
but thank God Waitrose is still open. Whilst praying and let me add working towards
said breakthroughs, I have been guilty of ‘treating myself’ with assorted
goodies from slabs of cake and mountains of pasta to the obligatory I made it
through the day wine o’clock tipple. And let’s not even get me started on my
number one medication of choice caffeine. Tea and coffee are practically human
rights issues for me, and the end seems so far away.
I am aware my first post is low on spirituality, but if
anything it has highlighted to me just how dependant I have become on physical
succour of the edible variety rather than the more metaphysical. Daniel himself fasted when he was in an
unexpected and not entirely fabulous place but as a result of it the miraculous
came to him along with a vision to end all visions. At the risk of sounding
slightly sacrilegious this fast better put trust in JC back front and centre
rather than my trifecta of meat, booze and caffeine, I am praying for nothing
less and a whole lot more.
No comments:
Post a Comment