Day 16: Biblical Simplicity and Food

I hope to be back on schedule with posting on time in the morning. Crossing my fingers… 🙂  Today’s post is lengthy, and if you are new this is not the typical post length.

The Table Updated

I promised you a new picture of my organized desk. I think I need to carry you all around with me more often, as look as my desk now:

I have my planner by my computer, the binder all organized, and the inbox cleaned out, and I actually sent back to school several papers on time, so you guys helped me organize in the best way. I’m totally gonna remember this. Besides, I really do love a clean desk, but you know, momma’s desk ain’t being used for anything else important, so it’s gotta hold some stuff. 🙂

Biblical Simplicity and Food

So let’s talk biblical simplicity and food! My church is doing the bible study, 7, by Jen Hatmaker right now. Go check out my church: Valleydale Church and pastor Jason’s awesome blog. But even better, check out the blog our women are doing through the 7 study: Valleydale Does 7! I love the post called, “Really Jen” because who doesn’t love their food, right? I’ve mentioned that I gained a little weight, and I have digestive issues, so back in August when school started, I started an elimination diet. It is like my body said “enough,” so I have been transforming my diet. I tried this diet once before and did not stick with it. This time I am on Day 62. I totally have had some off days, but mainly its been transforming my thoughts about food both physically and spiritually.

Fasting

I was in college when I read “Celebration of Discipline” for the first time. Foster lists these things as Spiritual Disciplines: meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. So while fasting does not fall under simplicity, when we talk about food, I think we need to remember fasting. I was a student at Auburn the first time I’d heard anything about fasting. In the years following college, I’ve practiced fasting on and off, and I think it is safe to say, it is a discipline I could practice some more, as I was never the most disciplined at it. Foster outlines fasting in the bible, the purpose, and the practice of fasting.

“Once the primary purpose of fasting is firmly fixed in our hearts, we are at liberty to understand that there are also secondary purposes in fasting. More than any other Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. David writes, ‘I humbled my soul with fasting’ (Ps. 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear – if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we will realize that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ.”

What Foster is saying here is exactly the point I was trying to make in my post about simplicity revealing the heart. He mentions three types of fasts: partial, normal, and absolute. A partial fast gives up some facet of food for 24 hours, normal fast gives up all food but not water or juice, an absolute fast gives up food and water (this fast can only be 3 days at most). There is a progression to fasting: partial for 24 hours, normal for 24 hours, a partial extended fast of 3 meals in 36 hours, and extended fast giving up foods for up to 40 days. Foster recommends that you master each fast and then progress on to the next one. I gather that most of us do partial fasts regularly even while they may be unintended, while we rarely move on to normal and extended fasts.

A word of caution is in order. People suffering with eating disorders and people with chronic illnesses like diabetes need to be weary of fasting in the normal or extended fashion. However, you can always fast from something other than food, but food is our sustenance. There is nothing like withholding your sustenance to see how much you truly need God. In Jen Hatmaker’s, “7,” some members of her Counsel only ate the diets of other countries where food resources are scarce. I like this idea for drawing you closer to poverty and suffering.

In a large part, simplicity takes one step further from fasting. It is not just withholding something such as food for a little while, it actually attempts to remove anything on the throne of our heart that is not God.

Scripture to read: Luke 4:1-4, Daniel 10:3, Daniel 1, Esther 4:16, Isaiah 58, Joel 2, 2 Cor 11:27, Matt 6:16-18.

I particularly highlight the Matthew passion because this is Jesus talking about it, and it is interesting to note that it comes right before he begins to speak about storing treasures in heaven, as if to say fasting and simplicity walk hand in hand. Quite frankly if my checkbook is an indication of my treasure, then food is my treasure, because we do spend more on it than anything else.

Food

While I have not taken a spiritual fast recently, the diet I am on is a type of fast. I have learned like Daniel that one can be strengthened by veggies and water alone. My body’s discord demanded that I do something different to heal it. I think this should also be a reminder to us when our bodies seem defunct that something may be off kilter with us spiritually. Particularly I learned that “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:16). When are controlled by the cravings and urges of our flesh instead of us having domain over our bodies, there is a larger spiritual problem at work.

What I’ve learned to be “simple” foods are not the ones the world holds as simple foods. The simple foods are natural fruits and veggies, meats, and breads made of whole grains – basically foods that are not highly processed and that are closer to the food God gave us. Much of what we eat today is not of God.

Transitioning from the Standard American Diet to a simple diet is a process, which I have been working on for years now. Expect to pay more for simple foods. Sadly as Americans we’ve demanded more, faster, cheaper, so much so that we have our own type of food poverty. The foods that are cheapest are the worst for us. If we would all make a shift back to simplicity in our foods, the prices would have to change. Take baby steps so that the shift in moneys changes gradually. Food shifts are again not about legalism, but about honoring God with our bodies.

Here is a mini list of easy ways to transition:

1. Learn to pop your own popcorn instead of making microwave popcorn. It tastes better and the risk of cancer is much lower.
2. Replace your table syrup with maple syrup.
3. Buy natural nut butters instead of processed butters.
4. Buy cage free eggs instead of regular eggs.
5. When possible, buy whole foods rather than processed foods.
6. Lastly, make a shift to organics.

This post is one in a series of posts for 31 days of Simplicity. To read the rest of the series, click on the icon below:

Photo Credit: Sharon Mollerus

Linking up with these ladies: Deep Roots at Home, Word Filled Wed, Wise Woman, Works for Me Wed, Whatever Wed, and Walking Redeemed.

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