Author: Wick

Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, Writer, Poet, Friend, reader, coffee enthusiast, hockey Wing-Nut, musical participator, etc...
Posted in Uncategorized

12 days is fast.

Posted on by Wick

On the way to Vegas last month, I read an interesting article on fasting that stirred a desire in me to try a long-term fast. It seemed appropriate that my goal be 40 days, given the season of Lent, and so I would eat my last meal Feb. 27th, and fast until Easter. I’ll confess, it wasn’t a remarkably “spiritual” article, but a health and human body type focus. My fast began partially as an experiment to see what would happen to my body, and what God could do if I offered Him this exercise in self-control.

I ate nothing, drinking only water, and boy was I thirsty. 🙂 As many say, the first 3-4 days were tough, as my “hunger” faded. What most don’t say after that, however, is the amazing amount of appetite that remains. I didn’t want to give up routines, or being a good father/husband. So I would still help prepare/clean up meals, and being close to food was increasingly tough. The hardest times were when I attended a youth pizza party, catered meal, or went out to a sit-down restaurant….which seemed to happen more in these days than the previous year combined. 🙂

My energy levels remained fairly consistent. I still did pretty much everything the same, minus heading to bed early the first few nights. On day 6, I did allow myself to take communion at church. The small piece of bread tasted amazing, and the juice was sweeter than ever! I felt cleaned out and healthy, and after a week even felt a bit more alert than usual. But as time went on, the impact became more and more pronounced.

Toward the end of my 12th day, I made the decision to move toward food again. I say “move toward”, because after 12 days of not eating, the stomach isn’t ready for a bacon-cheeseburger. I ate a little spinach and carrots, and because it was my wife’s b-day party, a few crackers with cheese-ball, and couple bites of her cake. (I paid for eating that cheese-ball a bit. 🙂 )

I had lost 22 pounds in 12 days, which seemed a bit unhealthy, thanks to my high metabolism. My pants were sliding off, and people were asking me what I was doing to lose weight. It was hard to sit with my family, and still feel like I wasn’t quite “with them”, since as my 5 year old was saying, “Daddy doesn’t eat anymore.” My wife found out she was allergic to gluten, and was baking all sorts of new dishes – I could tell it was hard for her to not get any of my thoughts on this new menu for our home. I’d begun wearing socks at night, due to my feet being bricks of ice. The blood-flow had slowed to the point that even in the afternoon, my hands felt like cold fish. I could go on with more reasons, but don’t need to. The point is, I decided to stop. 🙂

I definitely recommend a fast of 1, 3, 5, or even 10 days. It’s right there with prayer in the Bible, but somehow we’ve let it go as something beneficial and God-given – not just for our spiritual, but our physical lives.

During this time, I gained a lot (except weight). I was reminded to have control of my appetites, since we live in a culture that goes way beyond satisfying hunger. We often “eat until we are full”, both literally and figuratively. I discovered fasting is not a magic spell to force God’s hand, but it does make it easier to get through the wall of “me” in my prayer life. I was even taught that perhaps the humility of choosing to stop, even though I’d told those who asked I was going to try 40 days – was good for my soul. Fasting is, after all, about letting go of self, not asserting self’s desire to succeed.

On a side note: This is best darned Naked Juice I’ve ever had. 🙂

Posted in Different Learning, Different Moments, Different Thoughts

12 days is fast.

Posted on by Wick

On the way to Vegas last month, I read an interesting article on fasting that stirred a desire in me to try a long-term fast.  It seemed appropriate that my goal be 40 days, given the season of Lent, and so I would eat my last meal Feb. 27th, and fast until Easter.  I’ll confess, it wasn’t a remarkably “spiritual” article, but a health and human body type focus.  My fast began partially as an experiment to see what would happen to my body, and what God could do if I offered Him this exercise in self-control.

I ate nothing, drinking only water, and boy was I thirsty. 🙂  As many say, the first 3-4 days were tough, as my “hunger” faded.  What most don’t say after that, however, is the amazing amount of appetite that remains.  I didn’t want to give up routines, or being a good father/husband.  So I would still help prepare/clean up meals, and being close to food was increasingly tough.  The hardest times were when I attended a youth pizza party, catered meal, or went out to a sit-down restaurant….which seemed to happen more in these days than the previous year combined. 🙂

My energy levels remained fairly consistent.  I still did pretty much everything the same, minus heading to bed early the first few nights.  On day 6, I did allow myself to take communion at church.  The small piece of bread tasted amazing, and the juice was sweeter than ever!  I felt cleaned out and healthy, and after a week even felt a bit more alert than usual.  But as time went on, the impact became more and more pronounced.

Toward the end of my 12th day, I made the decision to move toward food again.  I say “move toward”, because after 12 days of not eating, the stomach isn’t ready for a bacon-cheeseburger.  I ate a little spinach and carrots, and because it was my wife’s b-day party, a few crackers with cheese-ball, and couple bites of her cake. (I paid for eating that cheese-ball a bit. 🙂   )

I had lost 22 pounds in 12 days, which seemed a bit unhealthy, thanks to my high metabolism.  My pants were sliding off, and people were asking me what I was doing to lose weight.  It was hard to sit with my family, and still feel like I wasn’t quite “with them”, since as my 5 year old was saying, “Daddy doesn’t eat anymore.”  My wife found out she was allergic to gluten, and was baking all sorts of new dishes – I could tell it was hard for her to not get any of my thoughts on this new menu for our home.  I’d begun wearing socks at night, due to my feet being bricks of ice.  The blood-flow had slowed to the point that even in the afternoon, my hands felt like cold fish.  I could go on with more reasons, but don’t need to.  The point is, I decided to stop. 🙂

I definitely recommend a fast of 1, 3, 5, or even 10 days.  It’s right there with prayer in the Bible, but somehow we’ve let it go as something beneficial and God-given – not just for our spiritual, but our physical lives.

During this time, I gained a lot (except weight).  I was reminded to have control of my appetites, since we live in a culture that goes way beyond satisfying hunger.  We often “eat until we are full”, both literally and figuratively.  I discovered fasting is not a magic spell to force God’s hand, but it does make it easier to get through the wall of “me” in my prayer life.  I was even taught that perhaps the humility of choosing to stop, even though I’d told those who asked I was going to try 40 days – was good for my soul.  Fasting is, after all, about letting go of self, not asserting self’s desire to succeed.

On a side note: This is best darned Naked Juice I’ve ever had. 🙂

Posted in Different Learning

edible homeschool.

Posted on by Wick

As I’ve noted before, we’ve begun the exciting adventure of homeschooling our girls.  They’re still pretty young, but are learning fast.  Our 5 year old is reading and spelling all kinds of words, and her sisters seem to be picking up things with her often.  In my wife’s reading, she came upon the idea of keeping chickens as both an educational, and beneficial hobby.  She mentioned it to me, and together we researched what it might look like for us, as city dwellers.

We soon found out, our city allows keeping a limited amount of poultry if:

1. The coop is at least 75 ft. from your neighbor’s home. (not garage)

2. They do not recommend roosters, due to noise. (fine with that, they don’t lay eggs)

3. They do not allow cock fighting.  (shucks, okay.)

We’re still only in the beginning stages of keeping them, and our girls love having baby chicks around.  Because it’s so cold outside, they don’t have full feathers yet, (and I haven’t built the coop yet), they’re indoors for now.  But soon they’ll be outdoors, enjoying a nice cheaply assembled coop, reinforced against raccoons.  By the end of summer, we hope to start getting eggs from them.  Right now we have 2 ISA Brown’s, and hope to add 1 or 2 more Barred Rock’s when the farm store gets them in.

We’ve been purposeful with our girls, making sure they know that when these chickens stop giving us eggs, we’re probably going to eat them.  So far they’re nodding in agreement, but when the time comes, we’ll see how we handle things.  They’ve given them names, and no one took daddy’s suggestion of “Nugget”.

For now, it’s great to teach the girls to be gentle, and that God has given us His creation to take care of – and in return it helps take care of us.  They wake up each morning, eager to pet the baby chicks, and watch them as they explore their current homemade habitat.  Eventually I’m sure the novelty will wear off, but for now it’s pretty neat.  And someday when we’re on vacation, we can offer free eggs to anyone who will come over to feed the hens. 🙂  Kinda cool.