The Challenge: Day 3

Two years ago Adore began its annual 21 day fast, also known as "The 21 Day Challenge" or "The Challenge". This is a time when we our church has a corporate fast for 21 days at the beginning of January to prepare interdependently for the year we have ahead of us. By "prepare" I mean not in a physical I-just-ate-my-body-weight-in-chocolate-over-the-month-of-December-and-need-to-recuperate sort of way but in a God-has-things-planned-for-this-year-and-I-want-to-take-part-in-them sort of way. It's less of a physical preparation and more of a spiritual one. On Sunday night Pastor Andy gave a powerful message about what fasting "is" and what fasting "isn't" and here is my re-cap of the message for all my friends who were still out of town at the end of December.

Fasting is not:
1. an attempt at obligating God
2. an attempt at losing weight
3. a hunger strike (this is politically driven)
4. an opportunity to make gourmet vegan food
5. a way to gain self-righteousness
6. just the denial of something (it's always paired with prayer, worship, and service)

Fasting is:
1. a spiritual exercise
2. drawing away from our clutches and turning to God for our comfort
"the response to a sacred moment, serious or grievous, to the desperate need we feel from God" (that last beauty was a direct quote was from Pastor Andy on Sunday night. If you weren't there, bet you're sad you missed it now!)

If you go to Adore and haven't started The Challenge yet I want to tell you that it's not too late to start! There are still 18 days left and although God won't love you any more or any less regardless on your participation in the fast I believe it is a good way to start the year. Also, if you're unsure of what may come with the fast I want to encourage you and tell you that I've had both bad and good experiences with fasting. My bad experiences have often been paired up with little prayer and even smaller amounts of seeking God in any way or form. These experiences have caused me to spend most of my days being grumpy and making the people around me grumpy too (bad). My good experiences, however, have been paired up with prayer and intentionally seeking God's face. Not so surprisingly, the good experiences have catapulted my faith into a depth that I've had difficulty reproducing with other experiences and a clarity to see God's face and His callings for the next steps for my life. Regardless of the experiences you may have encountered or fears/worries you may have for fasting keep in mind that fasting is a discipline, meaning it takes practice and patience! When I find myself coming up short, this encouragement helps me as well. 

Happy fasting & till next time.

xx