A week without
Fasting is a discipline that I try to participate in at least once a year, and typically during Lent, but this past week I have participated in a different kind of fast. I’ve fasted from having a wife.
Early on in my attempts to fast I would plan a huge Break-fast event and found that in reality I couldn’t eat that much. As my fasting matured I became more sensitive to the abundance and necessity of food.
I’ve been away from my wife before, and she’s even been away from me for four or five days. This; however, is the first time I’ve had to get kids to games, practices, and church. The first time to manage the chaos of after school homework. The first time to pack lunch, do hair, pick out clothes, bathe kids, and fix breakfast all at the same time. The first time to make sure that the food would be there for those activities. The first time to do mountains of laundry and to make sure chores are done.
I used to think fasting was about not doing, but in reality I have learned this week that it is about doing without.
My admiration, appreciation, and commitment to my wife and kids has grown tremendously. My sensitivity to the single parent scenario has reached a peak. My aversion to divorce has only grown stronger.
A week without…you should try it.
The nature of the comments, and a request for more comments
So, the nature of the first comment yesterday, “People don’t make rational decisions; they make emotional ones. Rational campaigns fail.” is a summary of what Ben Arment took away from a book he was reading written by Facebook’s Paul Adams entitled Grouped: How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web (Voices That Matter)
Now, of course the book and Paul Adams’ view is one of the marketer. He states what retail has known forever, which is why everything from condoms to candy to the latest “As Seen on TV” gadget sits at the checkout line. The goal of the marketer is to sell something, and in the end they just want to make a living.
The second comment, “Calling people to repent of their sin and follow Christ should be a rational decision.” is mine only for the sake of sparking a discussion.
On Facebook my friend Beth commented that to exclude the emotional is not giving Christ all of us, and results in what is only a mental ascent. I think I agree with her evaluation; however, I do not think we lead with the emotional as the marketer may because we do not want to sell a product in order to make a living, but rather we want to help make someone family.
In the end, we do not want the King Size M&M’s to get the same kind of attention that Jesus gets when it comes to choice.
And often I think that is where we can fall short as the Church, because we have reduced “repent and proclaim allegiance to Jesus” to a checkout aisle product push when it should be a timely and time consuming counting of the cost (Luke 14:28).
After Church I Was Tempted…
It was a slightly unpleasant afternoon as I realized how much we had talked about Sunday morning and Saturday night began to creep into my life.
On Sunday Afternoon…
I was tempted to just watch TV instead of ride bikes with the kids.
I was tempted to go buy pre-made food instead of prepare my own because I felt justified in my laziness.
I was tempted to stay up late to watch a movie, and I did, which wasn’t such a great idea when the alarm went off at 6:30am.
I was also tempted to snack during the movie, but didn’t only because we need to go to the grocery store.
Don’t beat yourselves up when you fail. Just learn from it and move on. Satan wants us to feel like the path we are on with Christ is an endless path of being a complete disappointment. The reality is that as long as we are able to recognize our shortcomings we’ll lean more fully on Christ, and our vulnerability to temptation will decrease.