I recently learned our local zoo varies the diet of big cats to mimic life in the wild; some days they get meat, other days just the bones and cartilage and one day each cycle – they don’t get fed at all.   Why?  Because the diet more closely resembles their natural diet in the wild.

I have no doubt those cats like “meat-day” a lot more than “fasting-day”, but the truth is they are more active and more focused on their “big-cat” purpose on fasting day.  As they get hungrier, they become more engaged with their surroundings, their senses become heightened, and their movements more deliberate. They instinctively begin to hunt and watch the people walking by with greater interest.  Being hungry engages an awareness of purpose.

Just like those big cats, we like to be fed on a regular basis, and we enjoy “meat seasons” a lot more than “bones and cartilage seasons” and certainly more than “fasting seasons.”  In fact, most of us work very hard to try and maintain a lifestyle that metaphorically keeps us comfortably in meat.  We begin to worry when bones start showing up for dinner.  We plan our job progression, our children’s college fund and our retirement to make sure our meat eating days are secured.

We like to control the areas of uncertainty in our life.  We ask the Lord to move and work through us, but we become increasingly uncomfortable if said movement looks like it may negatively impact our lifestyle.   We love it when the Lord moves in the way we expect.  We love positive uncertainties – starting a new job, going on a short-term mission trip or learning a new skill.  What we don’t like are negative uncertainties – lay-offs, forced transition, or breakdowns.   Yes, like our feline counterparts, we like the meat-days better than the fasting days.

Then, we wonder why our prayer life seems sluggish and our worship a little sleepy.

Here is where many of us make our mistake …. We don’t just ask the Lord to move in our lives, we tell him where and how and when to move!  We evaluate our situation, and then go about the process of asking God to give us the solution we have determined solves the problem while at the same time maintaining the status quo.  Our prayers are more like orders shouted through a drive-up speaker.  We know exactly what the order is going to cost us when we get to the window and we are prepared to pay it.

A drive through faith diet is just as unhealthy as a fast food diet.

How often do we hear quoted, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well .”  Matthew 6:33. From my completely Americanized perspective, I tend to focus on the “all these things will be given” part of the scripture.   Let’s face it, we like our stuff, and treasures (not necessarily the kingdom kind) are something we enjoy in abundance.

Let’s look at the verses surrounding, our treasure verse.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)

The certainty in these verses is not the food or the clothes or the home or the healthy retirement (the earthly treasures), it is the promise that our heavenly Father knows the diet best suited to keep us healthy and strong in the faith (our heavenly treasures).  The kingdom diet is going to include all the seasons and some of them are going to be tastier than others.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

     a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

     a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

     a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

     a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

     a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

     a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

     a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)

It took a long time to write this post.  It’s hard to be transparent about a lesson you are right in the middle of learning.

Over the last few years as my husband’s and my role in marriage ministry began to develop, the Lord began to change our diet.  Our Keeper undoubtedly noted that we were a little sluggish in our prayer life and that fasting was not a discipline we really maintained.  So, He changed our diet.   Our finances took a dramatic and unexpected turn, and suddenly we were very focused on what the Lord was directing us to do.  I EXPECTED this season of fasting and bones and cartilage would only last a short time – just a quickie diet to shed a few extra pounds.  It has not.  And like most people on a diet, I was cranky about it.

When I shared with David about what I was writing, he smiled and said, “but look at how much healthier and stronger we are.”  And it’s true.  The Lord knew exactly what we needed to strengthen our spiritual walk AND our unity.   By providing the daily bread He knows we need, he is training us to be aware, prepared and ready for whatever lions cross our path.

Training camp is never fun, but knowing I am being trained to run a race of excellence makes it all worth it.