Fasting
Isaiah 58:
Scream. Don’t hold back.
It’s ok to raise your voice!
Maybe the neighbords will hear you;
they’re behaving like children.
Stand in the parking lot Sunday morning -
make a searching confession:
remind everyone with ears that they’re guilty.
Here’s the deal: Everyone is running around in a frenzy
trying to be successful, and asking Me to give it to them.
What’s worse, they tell each other that’s what I want!
They act like they’re playing by the rules.
But they threw the rules away when they bought the game.
(and it was NO accident!)
I hear it all the time, “Oh, God.” “Oh my God.”
“Well, for Christ’s sake!” or.. “God Bless America.”
…”I swear to God”
It seems like a joke. Like they’re being genuine!
I heard someone say: “Hey, I’m fasting this week.”
And someone else, “I’m overseas serving the LORD.”
And this is humility? You’re doing it to please men!
You do it because it makes you feel good.
What good does it do to fast,
and flat out refuse to help with the dishes?
Your fast is already over in your heart
before it begins.
You’re just creating what you love: more drama!
Do you want The Existing One to hear you?
Then change the way you fast.
Learn to hear your own heart first.
What do you really want!?
A vacation from fast food!?
Vintage clothes…
Growing your beard?
Is that what you call fasting?
One day’s worth of “sacrifice” ?
Please!
Isn’t it time to remember what you learned when you were a kid:
A real superhero wears a disguise,
fights injustice, makes a mockery of greed,
and rescues the innocent from the clutches of villains…
? ? ? ?
Now that’s what I call fasting!
… a real switch from business as usual.
Aren’t we called to take it even a step further?
To share our food with those who don’t have any,
(how many times this week have you said, “I’m hungry!”)
To provide a place for a wanderer to sleep,
To give some of your favorite clothes to the folks who need them,
and stop acting like your family isn’t your first priority?
If we do all this stuff, won’t it be like a miracle?
Won’t it seem like we’re all healers – working wonders in the streets?
The Truth will make headlines – with a full color photo.
Starmaker will be smiling then.
And then, when we call out to Him, He’ll say:
“I’m right here!”
Get rid of oppression.
Stop being tattle-tales, spreading rumors and b.s.
just to make yourselves look righteous.
Wear yourselves out trying to feed people.
Sneak medicine into countries where “sanctions” are imposed.
Then, before you know it, your face will be shining.
Your depression, anxiety attacks and restless leg syndromes
will just up and magically disappear. Amazing!
Starmaker will guide you.
He will keep you satisfied, if you’ll let Him.
He’ll make you strong enough to withstand the real enemy:
YOURSELVES!!
You will become gardens where the needy come
and eat their fill of what they really need.
The thirsty will be able to drink
because then, your water will have been purified.
Your children will build on the ancient teachings
and reveal the Truth in ways you’ve never imagined.
They’ll start giving you nick-names like
“Best friend” and “My hero”.
If you can keep your bodies from getting in the way,
from eating like pigs, drinking like fish, staying up late;
watching the terror-laden marquis scroll across your screens,
if you will get some rest, stay hydrated and watch what you watch,
you’ll be so filled with Joy you will know His heart…
you’ll walk in the mountains all the time – in the High Country.
For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
spinning
we are spinning. every atom of every molecule of every element
spinning all its days, rotating around centers which, themselves,
only spin, everything rotating within that which rotates
inside what spins.
galactic centers rotate, coursing beyond the stars. see?
so much farther than can be seen – out beyond beyond
where everything finds a center.
Everyting.
you are not lost – nor are you alone.
you cannot lose the way. how can you lose something
placed within you – buried there in secret?
can you run from it? across the sea perhaps?
did you hang the flesh on your aching bones,
or fill a hundred thousand miles of vessels
with blood – red as the clay from which it was made?
did your mind spring from the void at your own command
knowing what it knows now: that it cannot survive?
no? then why bother so with details.
why look beyond the atoms, dancing within you
which know the way – as clearly as the stars?
why go into detail with suffering?
is this the rest you wish to find?
this pale trivia?
atoms comprise the sarcophagus of your flesh
and you are not alone.
feel the wind that lifts
the hands that carry.
Freedom? is that what you want?
is freedom what you wish for others?
are you already free?
struggle all you wish with that.
it will avail you nothing.
Nothing.