Fasting - it's not about "trending".

Three things you need to know before you start reading this blog.  (1) I am married to a "good ole boy".  Not a true redneck, not a country boy, just a plain old Texas born and raised "good ole boy".  (2) This is the order of priority of things in his life.  a.  God, b.  Me, c.  NASCAR, d. Football, e. If NASCAR season is over - football takes precedence, and (3) he loves meat and would prefer to eat it for every single meal, especially beef!  That will help set the stage for this blog.  

Everywhere I go these days, even at work I hear about "trending".  Now back in the day (never thought I would say that), I thought trending was all about fashion and what people were wearing. Now trending refers to what are we watching, following, reading, listening to, wearing, etc.  It's all about what we do, who we do it with and where we are doing it. Why are we  obsessed with these things?  

This "trending" vibe seems to have managed to invade the spaces of our churches as well. Social media has turned our culture into a open forum for us to share every explicit detail in our lives with the entire world.  Trending is just the latest means by which we do that. Every church website I go to has a Facebook, Twitter and You Tube link, "follow us on....".

I became a Christian as an adult.  I was in my early 20's.  I was in a church where you were taught how to got a hold of the things of God and that was what you held on for deal life to.  You certainly did not follow after the things of the world.  The Word was holy, our services were holy and our worship was holy.  There was a stark reverence of God and His power that made you want to crawl in a corner and hide because you knew God was there and He saw you for who you truly were.  We went to church dressed appropriately.  The kids paid attention, there were not other services for them to attend that make them comfortable.  We had a nursery if your child was under age 3 and we had a cry room if your child needed to be "taken out of the service".  I remember thinking seeing some of the fearful looks on little boys and girls being drug to the "cry room" that if you were not crying when you got in, everyone would hear you before you came out. We had an organ and a piano and a guy who could not sing on pitch leading us as we sang hymns.  And guess what?  God moved, he rolled through that little country church every single Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.  And church lasted until God was done!  The lost got saved, the broken became healed. Today I'm thankful for my early days in that church because it set a foundation for me to be able to discern when things were of God or just "trending".

Now before you (and all my pastor friends) throw me under the bus.  I'm all for progress.  I understand our culture as it is now and I also understand that we have to constantly be creating new ideas and ways that we use the tools in our culture to reach out to a lost, broken and hurting world.  I'm all for air conditioning, fellowship, and fun.  I support growth and everything else that follows from a church growing.  What I'm not for is "trending" so that we look like, act like and taste like what the rest of the world is looking like.  There has to be a reason that people want to come to church, and what we trend on social media or any other  media for that matter should not be what it is. There should be a true tugging draw from the Holy Spirit, and once those people get there they should be met with people who have laid down their lives for the sake of the others who welcome them, love them unconditionally, and disciple their relationship with the Lord. I don't care how good the music is, how my you hype it up, how great the coffee in your coffee house is, if people are not being changed - what's the point??

12:2:  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I think if Paul were alive today he would say, "Quit trending,  look to God. Think about God, think about what he is doing, what He is saying and who He is saying it to.  Then you will know that what you are following is true and pleases God and no-one else."

Back to where this all going.  First I have my husband's permission to use his example on the Internet and secondly, hopefully it will truly make you think about what you follow and why. More importantly what you fast and why.

Our church is heading into a week of fasting and prayer for a series of services that we will have at the end of the month.  I do not take fasting lightly, I think it should be productive and bring about change.  So does my husband.  So yesterday I emailed him about the upcoming fast and he quickly responded to me that he would be fasting sports.  Really???

Okay back to my opening, does football and NASCAR not fall in the top 2 category?  And for as quick as he responded to my email, he probably did not even realize that he was going to be saying "no" to football playoffs.  A point I brought to his attention when I got home from work last night.  While a weekend of no ESPN, fishing channels, hype up to opening race week on some other sports channel or what the NFL draft looks like for the Texans was a dream come true to me, in fairness I had to ask him -- why?  And it was then that he realized he had failed the litmus test for fasting. He did not even think about the consequences of his quick decision.

So this morning as I thought about trending and its impact on my life and how I behave, I looked across the room and this is what I saw.  We both have our laptops in our laps.  I have my tablet sitting next to me and we both have smart phones sitting our respective corners of the living room.  I have spent the better part of 2 hours writing this blog and drinking coffee.  I still have a stack of email to go through, plus a Dr. appt., and then grocery shopping and getting ready for the work week.  I don't know what Terry is looking at on line, I'm sure it is EBay.  I also think fasting is a private affair not a trending affair, so other than to post my blog, starting tomorrow you will not hear any details about what is coming out of our fast (detox) from our computers and TV.  Because that is not the reason for fasting.  Isaiah 58:6-11 (Message) is:

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
    and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
    The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

Fasting is to bring about change.  It is to break bondage.  So if you don't eat meat, and don't change what's the point?  If you give up social media, but don't change or cause others to change, what's the point?  I have done tons of fasts in my 30+ years as a Christian, some successfully and some not so successfully.  One thing I can attest to, the ones I get the most out of are the ones where I truly take the time to do something with God during those times rather than just fasting for the sake of fasting.  If I don't eat dinner every night, but spend that time watching TV, on my computer or on the phone - nothing is going to change.  I just gave up a meal.  But if I eat my dinner and spend 2-3 hours with Terry and we are reading together, praying together, hearing from God together - then God can move.  Not rocket science is it?  God is really not interested in what you do or do not eat, what you do or do not listen to, or what you do or do not do during a fast.  He is concerned about YOU, and the changes you are able to do only through Him.  The first five verses of Isaiah 58 say it all -- it is there that the Prophet says "don't care what you do outwardly if nothing is going on inwardly". 

I will be joining others at my place of worship as we enter into a week of fasting and prayer.  Because my work schedule is so chaotic and I am also preparing for a huge youth event that I work with each year, not eating is not an option.  My body needs fuel so I can be healthy, work out and keep up with my day to day life.   My hope is that this time of fasting in our lives will begin to prepare us for summer missions activities and for growing out of our complacent little lives into a disciplined walk with the Lord.

Our prayer in all we do throughout this year that we will experience God in the same manner we experienced him in those early days, where God was reverenced and where we still got to have chicken fried steak afterwards.  

~follow me....as I follow Him....

-cv