Thursday, September 08, 2016

A Fast of Current Events

For three days this week (Wednesday - Friday) our church is doing a Fall Fast.  Your choice, but fast from something for three days and pray and meditate instead.

Food I have done multiple times - and frankly, with the start of throwing season in 4 days, not the best option.  Instead, I chose current events.

Which for me, is a real task.  I am a news junkie.  I am really addicted to current events, even though they always make me nervous and upset when I read them.

So why do I do it?   Good question. I tie it back to 9/11, when I was driving on my way to work and suddenly on the radio I hear the Towers start to come down.  And I was caught completely unaware by this event, as if it had happened in a vacuum.

My solution?  To follow events, to try to see patterns, pick trends, know when the next big world changing event is coming from.  Not that I can ever know it, of course - but somehow the effort makes me feel as if I am somehow in control of events.

Which is silly, of course.  Seeing what is happening in real time is no more likely to make me secure or able to weather it than if I did not know and just lived my life differently.

Which is why this is the perfect fast for me.  I am putting my trust in my own wisdom, not God and His wisdom.

The world is still continuing to tumble (mostly out of control, in my opinion).  But for three days, I have my eyes trying to look somewhere else.

2 comments:

  1. It will be wonderfully freeing, if you can make yourself relax & just go with the flow, so to speak. God's on His throne, and we tend to forget that. :)

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    Replies
    1. We do, Reverend Paul. The relaxing part is getting to be the problem - probably a sign I should something more like a permanent fast from current events...

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