Archive for January, 2010

Day 15: Chicken biscuits and coffee

I will admit that I am really lousy at fasting. Even in high school I couldn’t even do the 30-Hour Famine without cheating. (School pizza gets me every time.) So, when Jeff Henderson blogged that he wanted all of us to do a 21-day fast for the 300,000 people in and around Buckhead that still do not know Christ, I immediately said, “That’s not for me.” Then I watched the video Jeff made and I decided right away I was going to fast from something and really do it.

I decided that I would fast from two of my favorite things in the world: fried food and caffeine. These two things are just a part of my life. I love getting a Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit every Friday as a treat on the last day of the work week and I especially love my coffee in the mornings.

I immediately noticed that when you fast from something really enjoyable you think about why you are fasting…A LOT! I find myself thinking about those 300,000 people that live all around me in Buckhead and I wonder if they have a clue that I gave up my coffee and chicken biscuit for them. I find myself thinking about our campus pastor, Jeff Henderson and what great vision and courage he displayed in challenging us to undertake this fasting experience. I find myself thinking about my wife and praying for her as she is also participating in the fast.

My thoughts over these first several days, I think, are the point of this fast. A fast jars your spirit and it disrupts your daily routine. It causes you to focus on the 300,000 people out there in Buckhead that probably have no clue that there are hundreds of people giving up sweets, television, food, soda, or the internet on their behalf this month. They walk beside us at Publix, drive by us in the parking lot at Lenox Mall, and give a wave when we let them merge onto 400 after work. We are fasting for them.

One of the most interesting things that I thought was that Jesus Christ did much the same for us. He knew that we needed him before we were born. He sacrificed his life on our behalf before we decided to love him. He chose to jar his own spirit and disrupt his life for us. At Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, they broke bread and drank wine and he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” I cannot help but wonder as he served the bread and the wine if he began to look around at his disciples thinking, “I am making this sacrifice for you.” As he hung from the cross looking at the Roman soldiers he thought, “I am making this sacrifice for you.” And as we go about our daily lives he thinks, “I made that sacrifice for you.”

I began to think about Jesus’ sacrifice for those 300,000 and how insignificant my sacrifice of chicken biscuits and coffee are in comparison to that sacrifice. If Jesus can sacrifice his life for those 300,000 people, I can make it 21 days without biscuits and coffee and I can be intentional to reach them.

Austin Lee

Day 14: An email from Haiti

For many years now, our Global X team has been supporting a school in Haiti called STEP. We received this email from there yesterday:

“Yes, we were hit hard by this earthquake. The original Bible School building has partially collapsed. Classes were in session. People got out covered in dirt and debris. But there are at least two students David and Bruce and others are still trying to get out. They have not heard from them so they are feared dead. We don’t have the heavy equipment needed. It is pitch black and we have neighbors and students all over the campus. Cindy and I said we are sleeping outside because the aftershocks are still going on and they really are frightening too. This was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced. You know there has been a tremendous loss of life. STEP is finished for this academic year. The building will probably have to come down completely.

All the homes are standing but not sure of structural damage. There is lots of damage with broken glass, etc. David yelled for me to get out of the house. I was walking on the treadmill and once it started I was thrown back and held on for dear life all my bookcases and things in my work room came down. Cindy was walking down her hallway and could hardly stay on her feet. We have no way to contact the Mears, Days and Weavers here in Port so don’t know how they are. Our missionaries out in the province are okay.

Pray for all of us in the days ahead to meet the needs all around us. We have many friends we have no idea if they are ok or not and have no way to get in touch with them.”

Today, as we fast, pray for Haiti.

Today, as we pray, give for Haiti. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

http://www.compassion.com/

Fast. Pray. Give. Haiti.

Jeff

Day 13: Be still

This fast has hit me in a unique season of life. I’m on maternity leave, home with my first baby. My whole life has been changed in the best way possible, and my days look completely different than they used to. Yes, having a newborn can be crazy, but overall my life has taken on a new look: Still. Quiet. Peace.

And you know what? It’s hard! I’m used to being on the go. I love staying connected with people through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and my iPhone only feeds the chaos. When Jeff presented the idea of the 21-day fast, I spent some time praying and thinking through what that would look like for me. Though I am fasting from certain foods, the other thing I’m focusing on is using the hours I spend feeding my baby to connect with Jesus. (I’m using a plan to read through the Gospels in 30 days that you can find here, if you are interested!) These are hours of my day now being used to just sit in the Word and in prayer.

I found myself in the beginning doing all the talking. But then Matthew 6:7-8 hit me: “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling . . . for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” I stopped in my tracks and realized how often I babble. I tell God the same things over and over. In that moment, I pondered what it really looks like to just BE in God’s presence and listen.

I’ve heard that a lot in my life . . . listen to God. But really, what does that mean? During this fast I’ve come to believe much of it just has to do with sitting in silence. I’ve tried this quite often and the silence becomes me watching the clock to see when my period of silence is over, while all too often going through my “to do” list for the day in my head.

You know how it is . . . you sit and you just constantly say, “OK, God, I’m listening . . . I’m here, and it’s quiet, and I’m listening, so go ahead . . . OK, are you going to speak to me?” But, that’s still not silence! So I feed my sweet girl and I sit. I think through what I’ve just read in the Word and have a conversation with him about that. I thank him for so many things and I do ask him for many things. But sometimes I’m just sitting noticing the sound of the heater that is working overtime in our old home. Sometimes it’s just staring in to the face of my daughter in amazement.

I’ve noticed that as I sit something will hit me in a fresh way from my time in the Word earlier. Or that a friend will cross my mind who is in the middle of something difficult and I’ll pray for her and remember to shoot her a text message later to check in. Have I heard the audible voice of God? No. Could I even nail it down to one major thing God is telling me during this fast? No. But is transformation happening? Absolutely. I feel connected to my heavenly Father in a fresh way. It’s a two-sided conversation, a relationship, the way he has called me to be with him.

Silence is hard. Being still is a discipline. Silence often brings up pain that we want to shove away with noise. But it’s often in the stillness that we find him. When confronted with our pain, it is then that healing can begin.

So today, try to find time to just sit. Go eat lunch in your car in the silence. Skip your work out and just be. Leave your phone at home and go for a walk. (Oh, and leave your iPod too!) Let us know how it goes.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

Jill Roberts

Day 12: The inconvenience of being uncomfortable

When our staff first mentioned the idea of fasting, I felt a distinct whisper that said “Pray that God would make you uncomfortable.” I remember heading into the end of the year with that in my ear, and as it seeped into my heart, I came to this realization: Not only do I not want to be uncomfortable; I’m not usually even willing to be inconvenienced. If I had any doubts about this, traveling for the holidays (with snow, flight delays, freezing cold, and a not-perfect family) convinced me.

Regardless, as the beginning of the year hit, I knew it meant being willing, for at least 21 days, to be uncomfortable, to not only navigate through inconvenience, but possibly to embrace it. Fasting from something that brings comfort is an inconvenience. I watched this play out, as the 18-month-old sitting next to me on the plane went from mom, to dad, to pacifier, to juice…anxious for the familiar comfort of these things.

Whatever your “pacifier” is, relinquishing it is, at the very least, an inconvenience. For me personally, it’s because I want what I want more than I want to be inconvenienced or uncomfortable. I want my Starbucks when I want it…I want to watch TV when I want…I want to eat when-and-what I want…I want to shop, or waste time, or spend money, when I want. Now, I don’t always get what I want…but I certainly can feel entitled to it.

So, I have to ask God to make me want something different.

I’m asking him to help me want to see the 300,000 unchurched in the Buckhead community know him. I’m asking him regularly to help me want them to experience God’s love, more than my prayers for my own well-being.

So, for these 21 days, I’m praying that God would allow me to be uncomfortable. I’m praying that he would make me willing to be inconvenienced.

I’m praying for the inconvenience of being uncomfortable.

Sue Bates

Day 11: I am a chair

This short video is a reminder of one of the reasons we are fasting as a church. Today, on Day 11, please take a moment to watch this and then pray afterwards.