A Different Kind of Hunger: Day Six: Excess

Please excuse my humble attempt at poetry. If you want to read good poetry, visit my friend Lance Schaubert. This is just an expression of ideas and feelings that have been running through my head the last few days.

Tomorrow, the seventh and final day of my fast, I will take a Sabbath from writing. I do plan on writing a follow-up within a few days.



Excess

Slowly stagger drunkenly
From golden arches' plenty
Venti frapiccino now
Thirty pounds overweight. How?

Clothes make the man so they say
The best deals found on Ebay
Ralph Lauren. Guess, Armani
Prada, Chanell, Versace.

All the cool kids use Apple
Macbook or status symbol
Don't drive Chevy, Lexus please
Soon increasing interest fees.

A thousand commercials speak
So you can't hear yourself think
Beyond not empty stomach
Or plastic in your wallet.



Few have stopped to learn this thing
Beauty is in suffering
Glory follows agony
Pain begets a symphony.

Homeless man, why so happy?

Without all of this plenty

No shirt no shoes no service

No place to rest. Like Jesus.

Less is more and more is less
Can we leave all this excess
And learn to love the simple
Find hope while we are able.

It's not too late.

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. - James 1:9-10

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” - Luke 12:15

A Different Kind of Hunger

There is an inherent danger in writing a post like this. 

As Jesus said, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven ." (Matt 6:1)  I am doing an outwardly righteous act and telling everyone about it. Well not everyone, but at least my 10 to 12 loyal readers. The danger is, that I would fast to impress all of you, and therefore lose any spiritual benefit I might receive.

Rest assured, I did not decide to fast with any of you in mind. Writing about it was more of an afterthought. I am fasting because this is what I need in this stage of my spiritual journey. 

I lack self control. When I have and itch I scratch it. I mean this literally (Stop scratching yourself!) as well as figuratively. If I think of food I eat something. If I think of TV, I watch something. Whenever I'm tired I rest. Whenever life gets too hard, I back away. I have no stamina to suffer. I have no will to deny my base desires. And I think there are a lot of others like me.

There is far too little talk about fasting in our day. It is a forgotten discipline. I know a number of Christians who have told me they have never fasted.  It's not just that we don't practice the discipline that Jesus and the Apostles, and nearly every notable role model in the Bible practiced. Our lack of fasting is indicative of a bigger problem, a lifestyle that lacks restraint. 

We live in a culture of excess. There are fast food restaurants on every corner. Stores and credit card companies implore us to buy whatever our hearts desire without waiting. We surf an internet full of images sure to satisfy every sexual desire with the click of a mouse. But with all this, we find we are not satisfied at all. We have a different kind of hunger that money and sex and food will not satisfy.

And that is why I write. I do not write as the spiritual guru who has it all together. I am a fellow traveler. Learn from my experience, both the good and the bad. In the end, perhaps my journey will inspire others down this road as well. And if it does, then I will indeed receive my reward from my Father in heaven.

I have never done anything like this before. I have fasted for a day or two many times, or more frequently a meal or two. I am mildly hypoglycemic, so I am allowing myself some diluted juice as needed to complete my normal routine. Other than that, I plan to just drink water.

Today I am beginning a seven day fast. I will write a post each day to reflect on what I have experienced physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Thank you for accompanying me on my journey. I am excited to see what God will do.

Simple Like Zombies

You'd have to be some kind of isolated prepper type to have missed the explosion of apocalypse-themed books, movies, and television series that have made their appearances over the last decade. From TV series like The Walking Dead, and Revolution, to books like Zombie Survival Guide and the Hunger Games Trilogy. Movies from Wall-E to World War Z. We as a society are full-on obsessed with the end of civilization as we know it.

The dystopian view of the future  is hardly a new phenomenon although the pace has certainly sped up in the last few years. Our parents watched Charlton Heston battle it out in Planet of the Apes. Our grandparents read Orwell's 1984, and our great-grandparents, H.G. Wells' Time Machine. The future has looked bleak for a long time.

Isn't it weird that we would be obsessed by a world where technology is useless. Where people band together and live off of the land. Where death is an ever-present possibility. Post-apocalyptic stories speak to people, and in particular to the people of America in the early 21st century. They tell us something about ourselves, and something about what we would like to see in ourselves.

Our outlook of the future first tells us how we see life now. Dystopia is merely an exaggeration of our own excesses, a magnification of the faults we see in society today. The Hunger Games trilogy, while bringing us many ponderous themes, is largely a critique of our obsession with entertainment, and our willingness entertain ourselves at others' expense. H.G. Wells saw the division between classes that already existed taken to he next level in Time Machine. As for zombies - zombies represent the way we see most people, a bunch of mindless followers, destroying and infecting the rest of us. Zombies represent our fear of loosing ourselves and becoming part of the herd.

Above all, we obsess about the downfall of society because we don't like society as it is.  Life has grown too complicated. We are not happy. We have an abundance of possessions, but find no joy in them. We listen to an abundance of voices, but they are all noise.

We long for a simpler life. I don't want to live my entire life on a smartphone or from behind a pair of Google Glasses. Humans were meant to have real abundant lives. A part of us longs to work the soil as our ancestors did, to produce things with our hands. A part of us wants to slow down and spend time talking to real people. We want a simpler life, but we lack the discipline to just unplug and throw it all away. So we invent a reality where that choice is taken from us. In a post-apocalyptic world we have no choice but to simplify.

The stories of society's demise remind us of what's really important. Much of these plots revolve around family and friends supporting one another and protecting each other from harm. We see people like us, living full lives without TVs or computers or cell phones. They are far more concerned with finding food, shelter, or preparing for the next onslaught of flesh-eating corpses. Just being with those they love, seeing them alive is the reward of our favorite characters. That is the simple life.

Jesus spoke to this need to simplify our lives long ago, when life was much less complicated than it is today. Jesus showed us a way to revolutionize our lives in the here and now, wherever the here and now happens to be. He told us that our lives do not consist of the abundance of our possessions (Luke 12:15). Life is not in stuff. He told us to stop worrying about what we should eat or what we should wear, but to trust God. By following Jesus, we can free ourselves from the power stuff wields over our lives. That is truly the simple life.

Here's the good news: we don't have to wait for an army of zombies to take over the world to begin simplifying our lives. It is possible to make the changes we long to see in our lives without atomic destruction. We could throw off the constraints of an ever more complex life and live life simply and purposefully. We could do it radically like Jesus recommended, "go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor." Or we could start small and work our way up to that. You could just decide not to buy something you don't need. It could be a bigger TV, a newer model of smartphone,  nicer car, or an exotic vacation. It can also mean paring down the possessions you already have. Have a rummage sell and get rid of some baggage. See how much lighter your life will feel (and it could help out some poor people too).

Does living a simple life seem exciting? I didn't come up with the idea. Here are a few good resources to learn more. Start with Jesus in the Gospels, especially the Sermon on the Mount, (Matt 5-7) Also check out Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, Celebration of Discipline, and Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster, and Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin.