Yesterday, church was absolutely awesome! I was pretty frazzled when I came in—Zach wasn’t feeling up to coming, and I had already gone to a volunteer orientation for church, then back home to get Isabelle, then back to church. But it was well worth coming through all of that to hear what Pastor Furtick had to say. The title of the sermon series is “The Dip.” It’s about all those valleys in life that we go through, when we are discouraged, disheartened, and in disrepair! Yesterday, he spoke out of 1 Kings 19. Elijah has just come from a huge triumph—at Mount Carmel he showed all of the idol worshipers just who God was and what He is capable of. Then he receives a little death threat from the queen. You would think that he would have said “Bring it on! (snap)” But instead, he ran. The theme: when you are in a dip, don’t dig yourself deeper. One key thought I got through this sermon: The goal of the enemy is to get you to distort the dimensions of your dip. Another key thought: The opposite of prayer is worry. The last one: you need to have perspective. We think that our problem is the biggest problem ever, until we can step outside of it and remember that our God is bigger than that.

Wow. I am a self proclaimed worrier. I come from a long line of worriers. It was awesome to hear this sermon, with so much fear all around me right now. Zach has made little progress in finding another job, and it’s pretty gloomy altogether in the construction industry, where both of us have our careers right now, as well as our entire country. But the opposite of prayer is worry! If you are worried about what is going on in your life, or if you know you are going through a dip—I highly recommend checking out www.elevationchurch.org and watching Pastor Furtick’s sermon series over the last couple of weeks. It truly helped me gain perspective. Hope it helps you.

No more fast for now

Well, last night was really rough because I became lightheaded and dizzy. And then I realized that my milk supply was way down, and I have decided that it is because of the fast (not a whole lot of stress otherwise). I am not ready to wean Isabelle yet. And Zach has been having major tummy problems. It is such an abrupt change. However, we will continue to fast from some things. I will be fasting from sodas. Sorry, folks, if you are looking for encouragement. This nursing mom can’t cut it.

Daniel Fast Day 2

Last night, we had brown rice and a little tofu stir fry. It was my first foray into cooking tofu, and since Zach ate it, I guess it was successful. (You should have heard the protest when I brought the tofu home!) Basically, I took some diced super firm tofu (did you know you can get it already diced?) and tossed it with some garlic, red pepper flakes, a little olive oil, and the long “extra-fine” frozen green beans. I let it set for a little bit (since we all know that tofu takes on the flavor of the food with which it is cooked). I then sauted the mixture until the beans were crisp-tender, and then I removed the beans. I let the tofu cook a little bit longer so it would brown some more and the texture would resemble sauted chicken breast. I thought it was pretty good, especially the brown rice, and like I said, Zach ate it! Today, I had granola for breakfast and the leftovers from last night for lunch. I learned my lesson from yesterday (I was very empty by the time I got home from work): I brought a banana, grapes, and celery for snacks.

The second day of the fast hasn’t gone so good for Zach. He has had some stomach problems, and actually had to leave work early. We are hoping that it is due to the abrupt change in diet to extremely high fiber foods and that he doesn’t have a bug.

Daniel Fast

Elevation Church is going to be doing a “Daniel Fast”, starting Sunday night, for 3 weeks as we go through the Gospel series, to pray for people in our lives who are far from God. This comes from the book of Daniel. He fasts 2 different times, both times not eating meat or anything offered to the Babylonian gods. He eats simple foods, fruits and vegetables.

Fast forward more than 2000 years. Elevation’s Daniel Fast can be found at www.danielfast.elevationchurch.org. Basically, it boils down to no refined sugars (basically the only sweetener allowed is honey), no meat or animal products (including dairy and eggs), and no artificial stuff (preservatives, sweeteners, flavorings, etc). Now, as soon as I read this, I was very concerned as a nursing mom. Calcium is very important, and even with a supplement, I don’t think cutting out dairy is a good idea. After all, I’m basically getting the calcium sucked right out of me.

So this is what Zach and I are going to do: we’re going to follow the Daniel Fast, but with dairy. No meat, no sugar, no caffeine, no artificial sweetener. No sodas (even diet, non-caffeine, which is what I’ve been drinking since Isabelle was born). No koolaid. No leavened bread. No solid fat. No processed food. All of this will be for 3 weeks. There are about 3 days that we have previously defined commitments, and we are still discussing if we are going to have meat on those days. It isn’t exactly what the leadership of the church is doing, but I think it is the best option for our family as far as a fast goes. Even though it’s not exactly what the Elevation Daniel Fast has been defined as, it will still be a definite fast for us, and that is the point, right? We are cutting out something so that we focus on God’s will.

So if we seem grouchy over the next few weeks, it’s because I haven’t had any chocolate or bread and because Zach hasn’t had any koolaid or meat.