So what did I learn from my three week purge of all foods delightful and delicous? From commiting to spend all that time I would normally spend just thinking about food to growing closer to God?
Jeremiah 33:3 says "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
Jeremiah said it better than I could.
The Daniel Fast was an amazing experience, both physically and spiritually. It is definitely something that I think I want to incorporate into my life on a regular basis. Not every month, mind you, but maybe twice a year. It was great to detox my body of all the processed and unhealthy food I had been consuming in large quantities.
Having dealt with chronic pain that would range from barely tolerate to take-me-to-the-ER-right-now, it was such a relief to feel a drastic difference in my neck and shoulders. The tightness that was always there was practically gone. The pain on the left side of my neck remains, but given that I have two herniated discs there, it could be worse.
What I found astounding on the physical side of things was that so many of the foods that I ate were causing inflammation. And the inflammation is what was causing the pain to be so bad. Overall, I would say that on a good day, just sitting still (i.e. not bending my neck to far forward or back/side to side), I can't feel any pain there. Pain remains in my shoulders, but it too has decreased. On the bad days, the pain is tolerable. Meaning I don't feel like I need to take anything like Ibuprofen or the anti-inflammatory prescribed by the pain management doctor. I still take the Gabapentin for nerve pain. If I don't, I feel the pins and needles in my hands and start scratching at my skin. Overall, it was the high quantities of sugar and gluten that were a large contributor to the amount of pain I was in.
On a spiritual end, I found myself praying for things and people that I have never done before. I found myself on numerous occasions having these intense "sessions" with God over my lunch hour, and really pouring myself into prayer for myself and others.
I can't even begin to fully describe what an incredible experience it was for me. One of the best parts was watching Katherine participate in the fast, food restrictions and all. The Sunday the fast ended, we were asked to think about what we had learned from the fast.
Katherine said this to me:
"That I think about food too much. When you can't have it you realize how much you think about it, when you can't have it. I realized that I need to think more about God and less about food. I hope that what I got out of this fast is that I will spend more time with God now."
Isn't that an amazing thing for a twelve year old child to say? But then, we do serve an amazing God, don't we?
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