I felt really bad for Jim. Over the last two weeks, he has had so little sleep. He was really struggling to function. Last night, he broke down, took something to help him sleep and went and crashed for almost 11 hours. He’s still upstairs sleeping.
When people list those things which we need to survive, often they are the arbitrary things that make them feel good. When I fasted for days, people, well meaning people, would tell me I was going to do more damage because I wasn’t eating. I heard that fasting was bad for you, that skipping meals would lead to obesity, even that I could hurt my [heart, internal organs, name a body part] by not eating enough.
Funny thing was, they never seemed to finish the sentence with how much enough was… merely that fasting was bad.
Lies we tell ourselves.
For tens of centuries the church, the universal Christian church, has fasted as a way of denying self to glorify God. In simplest ways they have abstained from meat, in more extreme ways, men have secluded themselves and eaten merely bread and water for days, months, even years, pouring their life into prayer.
What is it that is essential? Is 8 hours of sleep? Often the great of the faithful from years ago would go on a few hours of sleep a night. they would wake at 3 am, pray for an hour and then wake again at 5 for their daily chores and go to bed after 11 pm. Daily. For their entire life of service. These men, monks, would care for the sick and opened the first free hospitals. The plagues that racked Medieval Europe were cured by these humble men. And they died in a higher proportion than any others.
What is essential? Heat? These people went through the little Ice Age in the 12th and 13th Centuries… without heat in their convents and monasteries. They had no socks, only wool and cotton grown locally and made by their hands. Only the sick got heat.
What is essential? Clothes? Hand woven wool and hand spun cotton to cover? We complain about the silk on our bodies, or the problems with this synthetic or that.
What is essential? I will tell you what is life. What is bare bones the most important thing that we must have. Love. Then comes Faith and Hope. Then comes peace, joy, goodness, kindness, gentleness and self control. These fruits of the Spirit. These life essentials. All the rest can be whittled away to almost nothing and we will be fine. With these essentials, we have what matters most. Lived in a life surrounded by prayer and other people… because we don’t live in a vacuum.
Think about what is essential in your life, and what you have that you don’t need.
Ok, here is a bit of fun:
