The Fast For The Curious

The best stories don’t rush to the end but enjoy the journey keeping things interesting as we tick along. So thus far in this journey we’ve established the ignorant beginnings, discovered some fundamental reasons for the issue and the importance of relationships in getting anywhere with God. It’s not just about relationships the environment can be crucial as well as proved to be the case for this most crucial of episodes in the journey – we are in the city of Stoke-on-Trent … or at least near it.

United Christian Broadcasters were at the time based in a facility on the outskirts of the city called Hanchurch. The facility housed their recording studios, offices, canteen area, resource area and some decent quality overnight stay accommodation. Hughie worked here and managed to book some of the space and accommodation facilities for the group who expressed an interest in the national youth evangelism initiative. I recall it vividly because that weekend included Christmas Day and my dear friend, Kevin Shaw, celebrated the birth of his son around the same time.

The sessions that we had as we fasted awakened me to the vitality and dynamism of fasting. With no disrespect intended for previous experiences, I had never got the impression that it could be so riveting, interesting, aspiring, inspiring, challenging, invigorating and draining. Again because I was a novice I was only doing the fasting from morning to evening where others were going for the whole weekend. Unlike other occasions, though, we spent sessions creatively engaged in bible study and prayer.

I recall one landmark session was studying the episode of Gideon in the Judges 6 and also 7. We went through what lessons we could derive from it and its application to the evangelism initiative. I remember being amazed at just how much is ignored when we read scripture and how much juice there is in every verse. I was also caught up in those modern applications and how God is only looking for a few good men to accomplish His will so that the world will know that it is Him that has made it happen and not the ingenuity of man. It was such an impactful session as well as an impactful day that the thought of food or being hungry barely registered.

It was around this time as well that we watched a Transformations video (no, not that video) seeing the effects of the gospel in turning entire communities around from cesspits of sin to flourishing areas of economic vibrancy and social cohesion by the power of prayer and unity. I was captured by that vision and it definitely broadened my mind as to what ministry was all about.

It is something that still heavily influences our church approach to missions both at home and abroad. It is not just about only giving a word, or handing a leaflet to someone about how they need Jesus, but it is about a desire to see our community transformed by the power of God to be places of individuals delivered, families healed, businesses prospering, cultures coming together and peace being made by the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a lot more to the agenda than better church attendance – it is the natural consequence of making disciples and the social impact that has to have as a witness to the world of the glory of God.

I didn’t fully appreciate at the time how because I was feasting on the Word of God that I was fulfilling a basic requirement of fasting. It is not just the prohibition of food consumption but the active sole dedication of the mind and body to consumption of the things of Christ. It is physical affliction in line with a desperate need for God and God only.

Such was my excitement about the session of fasting that by the end of the weekend as I was planning to make my way back to London, Hughie and I conversed about things regarding both NYET and my media aspirations and we came to an agreement that it might be worth considering me moving up to Stoke-on-Trent … for good. That’s another story.

This started in earnest a new level of excitement about fasting, but little did I realise there was so much more fundamental lessons to learn. Lessons like some things to be aware of when fasting and how it is not just for church and project based purposes but it has significant personal implications as we shall discover in the next part of the series.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Fast For The Curious: Stokeyo Drift

Right so we’ve established my ignorant beginnings and the reason why this series is being written now as well as how I gained a level of consciousness about its importance.

To re-state for personal context purposes I’ve got baptised in February 1994 after taking a relationship with Jesus a bit more intentionally in the later summer of 1993. I’ve done the university thing from 1996-1999 and I’m just getting settled into London from August 1999 onwards. Things are looking good for me there. It’s a familiar place to me now, I’m feeling at home and building good relationships as well as getting involved in church activities. Surely everything was set for me to enjoy some good years in the capital city.

A number of factors merged to give me the opportunity of travelling up to Stoke-on-Trent. I had written a letter to someone I admire who was involved in Christian media up in the area. That letter was sent over a year previously and I’d almost forgotten about it as I settled in London after university.

I was involved in the Youth Anniversary for that year being asked to ‘preach’ a sermonette alongside some other brother (don’t worry Shane, I won’t expose you by mentioning your name here … oh hold on a minute ...). I have never been formally trained or personally mentored in the area of sermons. Having a knack of talking and being educated left most people assuming that I’d know what it is to preach and I’d be alright on any given occasion. Like a lot of the spiritual stuff that I’ve gone through, especially initially, it was mostly self-taught or Spirit-led without personal intervention – call it what you will.

I’ve never had the best recollection of that sermon, but I am my own worst critic. As well as the sermon, though, the rest of the day featured a presentation made by Hughie about a National Youth Evangelism initiative for which he was looking for volunteers. Thanks to my mentor at the time, Ritson Shields, I was already involved in an evangelism initiative and was exhilarated by the experience. Not sure if I’ve mentioned before that evangelism is not a natural passion for me – it has not bee something to which I am naturally drawn, but thanks to Ritson the interest was there and that was how I got involved in the local initiative.

Hughie was the dude to whom I’d sent the letter. Hearing him propose something on a bigger scale to what I was doing locally and a possible gateway to exploring the media I approached him and he recalled the letter sent to him sometime before. A fasting and planning weekend was scheduled for the end of the year in Stoke-on-Trent and so he said that would be a good time to discuss matters further.

This fasting weekend had enormous implications for my life. One aspect of that was my concept of fasting.

We’ll find out exactly what took place over that weekend that changed a substantial amount for me personally and spiritually in the next blog entry. What’s worth noting here though is just how crucial relationships are in our spiritual growth. As I mentioned earlier sometimes as new born Christians left to our own desires our initial excitement about God can peter out into a mundane double life of church attendance and mundane day to day living with a veneer of religiosity. God in His wisdom has given us men and women who model what it is to follow Christ and the Scriptures are replete with instructions for those relationships to be in place to encourage the whole Body to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Identifying these people may not always be easy, but it is definitely worthwhile. Meanwhile if you’ve done the trip for a while then you should be able to appreciate those who have not made the trip as yet as well as those new to the trip – the angst and issues of following Christ. Do me, them and most importantly God a favour and reach out to them if at all possible, befriend them, forbear them and contribute to their understanding of God that may lead to life-changing experiences as the Christ they see in you becomes a part of them over time.

Don’t forget to come back for more soon.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Mentor Birthday and Other Things

It’s good to reminisce now and again. I was just sitting here putting together the strands to various blogs and interspersed in all the writing and sorting I looked back on some of the earlier blog entries on this blog. It’s quite something reading about how I introduced my family and some social justice issues. Man, back in the day I could write. That’s not to say I’ve dropped the ball, it is to say I have hope to continue writing when I read stuff like that.

I was thinking about combining two strands of thought and making one blog, but on further consideration I thought it better to just leave it to two separate blogs so I can get on with the series on fasting on a different trend to keeping you up to date with a couple of things worth mentioning.

First it’s worth mentioning that as you read in yesterday’s blog I really began to take fasting a bit more seriously when I loved in London. During that time I had my first real spiritual mentor. Previously I was more or less left to my own devices in terms of being grounded in a relationship with God. It was Ritson Shields who took me under his wing and supported practically as well as in other ways to help me grow in my relationship with God. He helped me to get excited about some of the things of God and there’s no doubt that he helped me have a greater appreciation for exploring the things of God and taking my teaching passion seriously and wider than the denominational setting.

I say all this because today is his birthday. (OK it was today when I wrote even if it’s yesterday when I blog it!) Not quite sure how old he is, but I’m sure that’s completely irrelevant. This blog allows me to publicly declare my appreciation and love of him. There are times I wish we were physically closer as for all the benefit of modern communications, nothing beats intimate personal contact.

So on this his birthday I trust he had a good one and if you don’t have other followers of Christ that you can count on to help in your journey, please find them because they are worth their weight in gold. We were never meant to do this journey solo and ideally our local church is meant to be that expression of intimacy and grace that allows us to grow together closer to Christ and each other. I know realistically the ideal remains a challenge, but it is still possible to have close relationships in the Lord that echo Paul and Barnabas, Peter and John and other famous double-acts and group settings.

I thank God for you Ritson and trust that others will come to know the benefits of being mentored into growing in love with Christ as you have mentored me, sir.

I also thought I’d use this entry to again promote some of the other blogs to which I contribute. All year long my reading has increased a great deal and I’ve enjoyed that fact with one or two books standing out above the rest. I may have made private notes about them here and there, but I am looking to begin reviewing the books a lot more as there are so many values and other things of interest to gain from them. So where pertinent I’m putting up book reviews together, some on this blog and some on the sister blog Among Friends. Recently I finished reading the biography of Billy Joel by Bill Smith called I Go To Extremes and it gives me great pleasure to commend to you the review I’ve written on it. Look out for more reviews from time to time.

In terms of settling at home, I’m a lot closer than I was two months ago, but it’s still a longer process than I thought. Things at work are picking up slightly and I feel a bit better for that. One outlet of that will be greater activity on the web from me on the North Staffs YMCA site, so be sure to check it out as and when stuff changes. As well as all that I’m going through some challenging times personally in terms of getting focussed only on what God wants me to do. I’m sure I’ll blog on that sooner or later. Speaking of blogging later, there’ll be more on the current series of fasting very shortly. As ever thanks for your time in reading.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

2 Fast 2 Curious

So in yesterday’s introduction to this brief series on fasting we discovered that although I was born in a Christian background, with believers who knew about fasting, and although the denomination to which I belong had fasting as a regular practice it took me the best part of 20 years before I even managed to begin addressing fasting for myself. I started it in the old fashioned church sense thanks to knocking around with a friend when I was in London in the summer of 1997.

Now before I continue you could be asking that important question – why are you talking about fasting, now? What’s the big deal? Well as you’ve gathered I am fairly keen on following Jesus Christ. I believe He is Lord. I believe He died on the cross for the sins of the world and miraculously rose from the dead. I believe Him more than I’ve believed anyone or anything else even if my behaviour sometimes suggests otherwise. Now fasting played a significant part in the life of Christ and those of His followers. Thankfully better writers than I have covered just how significant fasting really is in the life of a believer.

For all that, though, I still get the impression that it is considered a useful option for the Christ-follower. In engaging people with faith in Christ, spiritual disciplines can tend to come across as rather onerous and difficult and with enough of those on the plate – bible study, prayer and the like – fasting is an occasional hazard that is avoided as often as possible or at least used as trivially and as ineffectively as possible. You should have gathered by now that this apathetic and indeed pathetic approach to fasting is something I am very familiar with – intimately familiar as it has been my experience.

Now I’ve not been converted into a zealous fast-evangelist who believes that if you do not fast you are no longer worthy of being called a Christian and grimaces at those who don’t do it three times a week. My journey is not one of a straight upwards tangent. The squiggles, ups and downs would resemble a work of art by my 4 year old daughter rather than the unreal good model of a Christian that just gets better. The bottom line for me remains; Jesus loved me so much that He died for a right relationship to be restored between me and the Father through Him.

He wants me to relate to Him by prayer. He wants me to be fruitful for Him by loving my church family and my enemies. In all this He wants me to value Him above everything and everyone else. He alone matters. Not my wife, not my siblings, not my parents, not my job, not the church, not my job, not my hobbies and interests and especially not me. These only have value in the light of the supreme value of Him. That’s not just rhetoric that has been my experience and most importantly that is the entire point of biblical narrative and relationship with God.

So a brilliant way that God helps us to keep this in mind is through fasting – it indeed can be used for medical/physical purposes, but spiritually speaking it is a powerful method of engaging with God with the depth of our being whilst subjecting our body to understand the number one priority of life.

This mapping of my journey into fasting is not a blame exercise it’s merely reflecting what happened to me so no indictment is meant to be implicit in what’s being said. Having said that one of the lessons I learn from the journey especially in the early days is how crucial it is to get help on even the basics of belief. It is not to force someone to fit your form of faith, but it is to help them establish disciplines with biblically based understanding of why they do what they do and how it is centred on Christ.

I think it was in 1998 or maybe 1999 when fasting took on a more serious bent towards specific activities. During this time, especially as 1999 rolled on and I finished university to settle in London, I got involved in activities where the praying and fasting were more focussed and a bit more information was given as to how to fast even if I had to be at work or whatsoever. I was also praying and fasting in preparation for things like the local evangelism initiative. This more purposeful approach to fasting would help considerably for the years that lay ahead. The real breakthrough in my appreciation for fasting took place at the end of 1999 …

And in the tradition of all good stories you’ll find out more about that in the next blog entry.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Fast and the Curious

I’m aware … I don’t know if you know … but I am aware that even on this very blog I don’t always come quick to fulfil my word. It’s not to say I don’t fulfil my word, it’s just that my original timescale for fulfilling it and the actual timing are somewhat skewed. Now I know you find that hard to believe, after all how can a man of my verbose nature struggle with time-keeping?? OK silly question, end of the day I’m not always prompt and don’t always make my deadlines but I guarantee you my heart is well into improving in this area so that when I say we will have this, then I say it knowing I will deliver – a bit like the Man I follow.

To give an example of what I’m talking about, check this entry last year giving an update on how I was. Note specifically the promise of something on Desperately Seeking God looking at fasting. So that was April, check what I say in May. It’s looking good, but not quite coming out on time. Now check what I say month later.

So there you go – good intentions, bit slow in matching it with outcomes … until now.

So I was not sure if I ever documented my journey in fasting but it’s worth putting it down in this series the first entry will be called … well you can read the title can’t you! For the benefit of the exercise the definition of fasting I’m using is the abstinence of food and drink for some spiritual purpose. More details will emerge as the blogs go on.

Fasting was fairly alien to me until I left home for university. Now hold on a minute, you might say … if you had an inkling about my upbringing. Your parents are Christian, no? You go to church, no? Your church does fasting, no? So … help me out here how does that work? Those kinds of questions could be buzzing around … or not – that depends on you right but I’m happy to air questions you may have asked in your head, it gives a base to answer them. So yes my parents are Christians and dedicated ones at that, not nominal types. The home church in which I grew up was into fasting … I think. It was never a big deal in my family and I never got the impression it was that big a deal in the church. As a result I didn’t make a big deal of it. In fact forget a big deal, it wasn’t a deal at all!

This changed in 1997 when I spent the summer with a family friend who was yet to become a personal dear friend (hey Reuben!). During my time with him, I went to the church observance of fasting on the first Sunday of every month. This was not a practice that I did back in my hometown church for whatever reason. This church practice was a meeting for a few hours to pray. It was not that memorable. In fact I couldn’t recall anything of great significance during that period about fasting and praying other than it being done and the great relief that took place when I could actually eat again. The fasting wasn’t for that long anyway, well it felt long but it was barely the day itself in which we fasted and other than the meeting itself my mind wasn’t really focussed on anything in particular during the time of fasting.

So that’s a starter for ten, find out more about my journey of fasting in the next blog where you’ll discover how things took a change the more I got involved in church stuff. You’ll also get to see how I grew in my understanding of just how important fasting is not just for church stuff but individual consequences. See the link that this had with some of my eating habits.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd