Day 17: Staying on Track

Scripture: Psalm 130-???

Today's Menu:

Whole foods left overs....veggie burger, grilled eggplant, spinach noodle salad, tabbouleh, raw veggies, tofu (yes, found a tofu I like), and split pea soup

Staying on Track

Ok, this is getting a little scary...I did not expect to be able to eat like this and enjoy it. My tastes have really changed and although I cannot say I will never eat meat, dairy, white bread or rice, yeast, or sugar, coffee, or tea, there is something in me that does not really want to go back.  Perhaps when my total fast is over (I will probably go longer than 21 days) but right now, except for the occasional craving for processed sugar, this is an ok way for me to live.  I would like these healthy foods to be my base and add the rest in moderation.  The opposite was true before I started. I feel "clean" and don't want to "defile" myself with some of the stuff I was putting in my body, even Snickers are not as appealing...I now feel a different kind of food guilt, like I am betraying something or someone because I am not looking forward to my old favorites.  This fast has changed me like none other.  I cannot remember a fast doing a complete overhaul on me in so many simple, fundamental, but critical ways like this one.  Look at GOD!  And from the comments I am hearing around, it seems like this is how a lot of people are feeling.  The Daniel fast is changing lives, even extending lives as we eat better physically and spiritually.

So today, I just want to to encourage us to stay on track.  I wrote the other day about the "sweet spot" and it is a lovely place. However, it is so easy to get pulled from it.  Take for instance, yesterday and this morning.  I got pulled away with so many things that needed my attention that I did not have the morning and evening time like I had been having and then my pandora subscription ran out because I had already used my free 40 mins of music for the month.  This morning I was awoken early with work calling me and had to back track to my devotions.  Now I accept that this is my life so I must now figure out how to live it better because my spirit felt off kilter.  So I simply did what I knew to do to refresh my spirit and unload my cares...I turned on my praise music (music is essential to my connect with God, when I cannot even pray, I will sing a hymn or song until I can unload my spirit), took out my journal, books, and bible and settled in with my time with God.  The sweetness returned.  

This fast has shown me how I can stay on track by simply getting right back on track whenever I fall off or in some cases, am pushed off.  Just go back to what I know to do to enter God's presence and cast my cares on Him instead of just pushing forward in my day and counting that time as a loss because I couldn't maintain the schedule.  It also is showing me what I know but am slow to accept--my day must begin at 5am at least 5-6 days a week.  It is the only way I can truly guard that precious time with God.  Even if I return to bed when it is done, I will have gotten it in.  Sleeping late may not get to be my weekly luxury...(sigh) but reserved for vacations, when I can truly turn off all contact, so I have to go to bed earlier instead.  This does not excite me but that "sweet spot" is worth staying on track.  I don't want to lose this closeness, this intimacy.  I am learning how to develop it, nurture it, create space for it because I now realize it is what I truly crave, not simply relationship but intimacy. My prayer is that like Nike, I just do it!