Woosh!!!
As I exited my cozy church’s warm interior, a bi-i-i-itter wind smacked me right across the face. It sucked the breath right out of lungs and carried it off to some far away place. Brrrrr!!!!
I frantically grabbed at my scarf, trying to pull it up over my shriveled frozen face, that had been smiling so sweetly just a warm second ago back inside the church, but, I couldn’t distinguish between woolly scarf and woolly coat collar through my gloved hand.
So, against my hand’s better judgement (“No! no! Back in the glove! Back in the glove!”) I had to uncover it to feel the difference between scarf and jacket. I quickly wrapped that scarf around my head. Mission accomplished! But the wind was still blowing, so I ran for the car, shivering all the way. Did I already say how Brrrr-y it was?! Brrrrr!!!!!
As I ran, though, this interesting thought blew around my brain — sometimes my heart acts like I have a glove on it. I can’t seem to tell the difference between a lie and the truth about myself, or my God, or the culture, or what’s best in any given situation because the similarities are close enough and my heart isn’t sensitive enough.
Know what I mean? That’s when I need to go to God to uncover my heart for me, to free it from the dulling effects of the world.
Which is why I’m joining my church tomorrow for our annual 3-week fast. I’m looking forward to waking up all my physical and spiritual senses.
I wanna hear what God might be saying to me, to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34). I want to feel in my heart, and know in my head, the subtle differences between selfishness and love, pride and humility, God’s voice and my own. I want to wake up and smell the coffee 🙂
For me, fasting is all about getting closer to God. And, because running against the wind, culturally, is a normal part of being a Christian, we need to be wrapped up with His warm presence for protection.
“Create in my a clean heart, O Lord. Renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
For practical tips on fasting, click on the “Fasting Basics” links to the right, or click on the word “fasting” in the topic cloud to read more Gloriadelias on the subject. Here’s one of my favorites: DIVE!