Sitting, Walking, Lying, Rising

    

    On day two I was noticing time and again just how often I would have been reaching for my phone… 10 seconds here… 10 minutes there… Basically, if my attention wasn’t being asked of me, my hands, eyes, and thoughts were going towards my phone. This behavior was highlighted by the fact that I was fasting. “Funny” how eating can be a distraction from the amount of time I’m aware that I’m on my phone and being on the phone can be a distraction to the nutritional value of what I’m putting into my body. The two things work together to keep me out of God’s word and into my will… my sickness.

    The question that He shed light on… just at the time I was ready to be present with the question… was “How often do I notice that I reach for the device?” And the response that presented itself in all it’s fasting clarity was what is described in Deuteronomy 6… except not about God… yikes!  

    “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” 

    When it comes to God, there are some of these qualities I felt I could check off my daily… maybe weekly list… if I had such a thing. But, if I were to rewrite passage replacing “God” with “food and social media” I could not only check them all off the list, but even add to it. 

    Since the fast I’ve not gotten back into those old patterns, not that I’m cured or have arrived. This fasting experience did provide me with alternatives to the mind numbing, time depleting activities that were weighing me down and keeping me from a growing relationship with God. I could go back into watching & eating garbage right now… just with the flip of a switch. But since the fast, I have experienced a shift and I don’t want to go back. I like my life and the connection I experience now way better than what I didn’t know I was missing before. My experience of connecting with God today is something I could not have cultivated within myself. It is an experience of receiving a gift. I am grateful. 

- Stanford M -  2023.01.02 continued on 2023.01.19