Guest Blogger David Coe on Fasting

Here are David Coe’s reflections on his day of fasting:

Monday, July 6, 2009

8:00 Last meal was 6pm last night. 14 hours and not a bit hungry. This is going to be easy.

12:00 First hunger pang. Not much of a pang and it goes away. I usually skip breakfast so this is not surprising. Starting a 5 hour drive home from the mountains.

4:00 After 4 hours on the road I have my first major hunger pang. Does not go away. All of a sudden all I can think about is how hungry I am.

4:15 Still hungry. Getting a headache and I’m tired. I’m starting to worry about my ability to drive safely.

4:20 Aargh! Ran a red light. Shoot! Dilemma: do I stop and eat or do I keep on driving? I don’t want Pastor Dave to have my death on his conscience.

4:25 Yikes! Almost ran another red light. Why do they put lights out here in the middle of nowhere?

4:30 I am able to remember that there is only one more red light between here and home. I will be ready for it. I am impressed with my ability to reason out a plan to get home safely given my current state of mind.

4:35 The red light comes and goes smooth as can be. Nice. I pat myself on the back.

4:37 Oh no!! Another red light! I stop OK but I’m no longer impressed with reasoning skills.

4:40 I hear the news on the radio about Sara Palin quitting her job as Governor of Alaska. After several painstaking analytical attempts I decide that it’s a good thing that she is not our Vice President. I will double check this conclusion with me tomorrow.

5:00 Made it home. Obviously I decided to be stupid and to keep driving. Still hungry but its no worse than it was an hour ago. I decide to write up my notes from the last hour before I forget what happened.

5:10 Done with my notes but I can’t remember everything that happened. I remember thinking that being starved makes me funny but I can’t remember why. Kind of like how a couple of beers makes me think that I’m debonair. It’s good that I don’t have any responsibilities this evening.

Going to check Dave’s instructions on what I’m supposed to be doing while I’m fasting.

5:15 Checked out the tile job that Don White did in the bathroom while I was gone. Man is he good!

6:30 Finished a long conversation with Doreen getting caught up on the events of the last few days (I’ve been away since last Thursday). Great conversation. I thought that I was going to get a little prickly but I just couldn’t because she was so cute hiding her dinner from me and showing off her very cool new outfit for an upcoming wedding and her new hairdo.

6:45 Beyond hunger now. Starting to feel physically ill, like I might puke.

7:10 Watched Perpetuum Jazille doing an amazing acappella version of The Rain In Africa on YouTube (http://www.flixxy.com/perpetuum-jazzile-real-group-africa.htm) . Actually made me forget my hunger for about 4 minutes! The first part is extremely quiet if you decide to watch it.

7:30 I found the questions from Pastor Dave. Will respond when the day is done. I don’t feel sick anymore. Just very hungry. I’m thinking about going to bed very early in an attempt to bring this to an end.

7:55 Spent several minutes trying to meditate, read the Bible, and pray. See comments below.

8:10 Just read Dave and Coby’s fasting journals. They are both so positive and I am so negative. The only positive thing in my day so far is Doreen and the fact that I lived to tell the tale.

9:15 Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Good night. I hope.

9:20 Found it easy to meditate and pray while lying still in bed. Felt close to Jesus. Forgot about hunger while praying.

4:20 It’s a little after 4 in the morning. I have not slept at all. I have lain awake for 7 hours, checking the clock every few minutes. I’ve tried everything and I can’t get to sleep. It has been 34 hours since I’ve eaten or had anything to drink other than water and coffee. Now I can’t sleep. I feel horrible and I’m getting depressed. Time to get up and eat something. I will start with apple juice and crackers.

10:20 4 crackers, a glass of apple juice, reading the paper, and a sleeping pill was all it took. I fell asleep just fine at 5:30 and slept until Doreen woke me at 10:20. Just ate a bagle and I feel great. Kind of cleansed. If I ever do this again I will allow a cracker or two and some juice.

PS – I was right about Palin.

Responses to Pastor Dave’s questions.

What does it feel like to be hungry?

It hurts. I cannot focus. I am easily distracted. I cannot sleep.

What is your body saying to you?

Feed me. Why would you do such a thing?

Did you experience any spiritual benefit to fasting?

Don’t think so. I tried to meditate – all I could do was think about food. I tried to read the Bible – I just kept reading the same sentence over and over again.

How did it affect your praying?

At first I tried to pray and I couldn’t say a simple prayer. I would get distracted and start thinking about something totally unrelated to what I was praying about. The harder I tried to concentrate on a conversation with God the worse it got. Later, in bed, I found it easy to pray and felt close to Jesus – more so than normal

Did your experience of fasting change how you view people who are in great need?

Yes.

Doreen and I support Compassion, a group that helps disadvantaged young people with food, clothing, and education in a Christ based way. This experience will help me to more fully appreciate why we’re doing that. I also plan to become a regular contributor to the Kitchen, something we’ve never done.

Throughout the day I knew that I always had the option to break my fast which I ultimately did at 4:20 am when I couldn’t take it anymore. The thought of not having that ability is sort of terrifying. I cannot get my mind around the idea that millions of people have to live with that pain and fear with no way to stop it.

I have long been grateful for the bounty that I enjoy through the grace of God. I think that I now have a better understanding of my responsibility to share all that God has given to me.

Meekness on the Softball Field

Meekness may not be used as a word in sports, but the concept is essential. Strength and athletic ability is not enough to succeed in sports. That ability must be brought under control so you can serve the team. Really, an athlete needs power under control, so you can serve the greater good of the sport and humanity.

If you've heard of Mallory Holtman, it is probably not because she holds records in women's softball for the Central Washington University Wildcats. It's true, she holds the conference career record for homeruns. Her career batting average was over .360.

That's not why she has two large storage bins under her bed, each filled with fan mail. That's not why she accompanied Rudy Giuliani at the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium or appeared with Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez and Justin Timberlake at the ESPY Awards for Sports greatness. Her records don't explain why she was honored by Congress with a special proclamation.

We would not be talking about Mallory Holtman, if not for a 40 second span of time, in a softball game, at the end of her senior year.

It was April 26, 2008 and the Wildcats were playing the Western Oregon Wolves in a double-header. Both teams had hopes of winning the conference championship and making it to the regional playoffs, on the road to a possible national championship. The Wildcats lost the first game and were one game away from elimination. For Mallory Holtman, this was her last chance.

The score was tied, 0-0, in the second inning, with runners on first and second, when Sara Tucholsky came to the plate for the Western Oregon Wolves. Sara was a reserve, batting under .200, who had been inserted into the second game to provide defense. Sara, at 5' 2" describes herself as a line drive hitter - she goes for singles. She hadn't hit a home run in her entire college career.

The curveball came in at about 50 mph and Sara swung. This line drive sailed past the 215 feet marker and over the left field fence - a three run home run.

Mallory watched helplessly as the ball sailed out of the park, but immediately started walking towards the pitchers mound to cheer up the pitcher and talk strategy - how would they recover from a 3-0 deficit? She saw the runner on second, round third and score. Close behind her, the runner on first scored. The crowd of under 200 were on their feet, yelling and cheering Sara's home run. But where was Sara?

There's a rule in baseball and softball - everybody knows it - you have to touch every base in the proper order or you're out. You can't "ballpark it" and it doesn't count if you run the same distance or more, but you miss even one base out of four.

Maybe it was the exuberence of hitting her first ever home run, but Sara rounded first and headed for second base when she heard the first base coach yelling, "get back, get back." She had missed the base and she knew it. She immediately planted her left foot and pivoted, but her cleats dug in, her knee gave out and she crumpled to the ground in pain. It would later be confirmed that she tore her anterior cruciate ligament, one of the major pieces of tissue that hold the top and bottom part of the leg together. Despite her pain, Sara crawled ten feet, back to first base and, as Sports Illustrated wrote, she hugged the base like a pillow.

At worst, she had hit safely - a single with two RBI. If she could get up and run - or walk or crawl the sixty feet to second base and then third and home, she would have her first home run and the Wolves would have the lead, 3-0. But she couldn't get up. She couldn't bear the pain of walking or even crawling. Sara looks up at the base umpire, Bill Wagner, and asks, "What do I do?"

Wagner doesn't know what to say, he has never seen a player injured on a "home run trot."

"Don't touch her," he tells everyone. That's another rule - if a player on your team touches you and helps you in any way, you're called out.

The coaches and umpires are reviewing all the rules they have stored in their brains and all their experiences and all they can come up with is that a sub can come in for Sara, but the hit will be ruled a two-run single. Sara doesn't get her home run.

They don't know what can be done, but they know what cannot be done. Meanwhile, the game is interupted by this awkward minute when a player is lying on the ground, clutching first base like a life ring.

Finally, the impasse is broken when the opposing team's Mallory Holtman speaks up to the first base umpire.

"Hey," she says to the umpires, "can I help her out?"

"What?" Wagner says.

Mallory continues, "Can I help her around the bases?"

The umpire asks, "Why would you want to do that?"

Why would she? She's already down 2-0 in the second inning and now she is proposing to help a player on the enemy's team finish her home run, so she would be down 3-0.

The first base ump can't think of a rule that says the opposing team cannot touch the player. He talks to the home plate ump, who says, "It's Senior Day. It's their field. If they want to do it, who am I to stop it?"

So, the ump turns back to Mallory.

"All right," he says. "Do it."

Mallory yells over to the shortstop, Liz Wallace. Without any visible hesitation, Liz drops her glove and walks over to first base.

"We're going to pick you up," Mallory says, "and carry you around the bases."

So, Mallory and Liz bend down on either side of Sara and Sara puts her arms around each of their necks. The two Wildcats reach under Sara's thighs and, carefully, they lift her up and start for second base, walking sideways as they're facing each other and Sara in between. They gently dip Sara's uninjured leg so her foot touches second. They start giggling as they imagine how silly this must look to the spectators.

They could not have imagined how noble this would look to the millions who would later see the only home video that recorded the moments when it was picked up by ESPN and then the CBS Morning Show and YouTube.

Mallory's Central Washington went on to score two runs and Western Oregon scored one more, winning the game 4-2। Sara's team advanced to the regional playoffs. Mallory and Liz's team were done for the season. It was the end of Mallory's storied college career. Technically, you'd have to say Mallory ended the season with a loss, but nobody sees it that way. Mallory Holtman is considered a hero for the decision she made that Saturday in April.

Sportsmanship is how sportswriters describe that shining moment। Incredible strength, incredible character, quick thinking, good judgement। All that is what the word meekness is all about.

Pam Knox, Western Oregon's Head Coach, later said, "It's a great moment, when someone has character to step up to do the right thing at the right time."

Jesus said the meek are not just admired, they are blessed. They will inherit the earth.

There are rewards for using power, controlled by love. For Mallory Holtman, there were awards that far exceeded any that might have come from making the playoffs and winning the NCAA championship.

Money poured in after the game. The CWU softball team received nearly $25,000 in donation. The university matched every dollar. The Wildcats got new uniforms for 2009 and new protective screens for pitching practice. Instead of riding to away games in three vans driven by the coaches, they were chauffeured around the Pacific Northwest in a luxury charter bus.

Mallory … and Sara have formed a nonprofit organization, the Mallory Holtman and Sara Tucholsky Sportsmanship Defined Foundation, with the aim of doling out scholarships and teaching kids the right way to play.

They have a publicist and a booking agent. Corporations pay them to deliver motivational speeches, including a recent appearance in Florida to educate five or six thousand mortgage brokers on character and responsibility.

There is great blessing and joy in meekness.

Based on the story in Sports Illustrated, "The Way It Should Be," by Thomas Lake, SI, June 29, 2009 (link)

Other Links

Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship, By Graham Hays, ESPN.com (link)

CWU Softball Players Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace Win ESPY for Best Moment (link)

Blessed Are the Meek

What does it mean, when Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek - they will inherit the earth?" Here's a story that captures the definition of meekness - strength under the control of love. This is the story of W. Oregon Sara Tucholsky first HR - ultimate sportsmanship, as told on ESPN's Sports Center.

Keep Your Eyes on Eternity

By guest author: Melanie Larson

I was reading a Randy Alcorn book called “The Treasure Principle", and something struck me.  I come from the health and fitness world where I try to help people feel healthier in mind and body.  One of the principles of stress management has to do with “staying in the present moment”.  We encourage people not to worry about the future or revisit the past, but to feel themselves in the present moment.  So when I saw the chapter called Eyes on Eternity, I thought wow, this kind of goes against “live in the present moment”, but in a good way. 

We have so much to look forward to as Christians! No matter what we are going through, we have the promise of peace in exchange for Obedience.  The Bible is The User Manual for Christians.  It tells us everything we need to know to live a blessed life. 

 From a Stewardship perspective, we need to view our lives from the perspective of eternity: “God Owns Everything, I am his Estate Manager”.  When the time comes, how do you want the return on God’s investment in you presented back to him?  Here are 3 questions.  

1.  How well do I spend my time?

2.  Do I use my talents for God's glory?

3.  Do I manage the money that I am entrusted with as God expects me to? 

Think and pray about this for the next 3 days and see what comes up for you. Keep a short diary of what comes up for you. Ask God to highlight whatever you need to work on the most.  Ask for the guidance you need to improve.  We all need to check in with God periodically.

Guest Post: Coby Larson on Fasting

From: Coburn Larson
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 2:33 PM
Subject: Fasting today....2:20
I decided I was going to fast today. I remembered my decision after my drive to work- after coffee & cereal. I skipped lunch, had lots of water. It's been a while since I've "gone to bed for dinner." Seems like a good day for it.

What does it feel like?
There is a combination of light-headed euphoria and empty-stomach discomfort. A little nervous energy (metabolosm?). A llittle grumpyness. Not so easy to focus in conversation though mental capicity is not suffering too much yet.

What is my body saying?
Stomach is speaking- "Argh. What are you doing...are you nuts? I need food."
Mind is speaking- "Whoa dude I'm like spacing out, man."
Soul is speaking- "Right on, brother. Give a little something up for Jesus who gave everything for you."
NOTE: The soul is in charge of this day.
More to follow.

Followup: June 30
No break in the fast. Packing fruit for the day and I'm going for another. No coffee, no beer, giving it all up except fruit, veggies, and natural fluids. For His glory and His temple.

A Fasting Journal

Having encouraged my congregation to fast for one day, preferably on Tuesday, I decided I better lead by example. So, I am fasting today,. Here are a few thoughts along the way.

7 AM - I forgot - I made coffee and ate a sugar cookie first thing this morning. I'll have to go until breakfast tomorrow. I'll stay with the coffee. This will be a coffee and water diet.

9 AM - Studying at home. Carol and Kim are waking up. I better leave soon, before I get grumpy and say something I regret.

11:30 AM - It's easier skipping lunch when you've skipped breakfast. I don't feel hungry.

12:15 PM - I'm sitting near a café at SRJC and smelling broiled hamburgers! Yum!

12:30 - I'm not suffering yet.

1 pm - I'm not even thinking about food. Cool.

1:30 -Fasting Tip: When fasting, don't hang around cafes. I'm moving to the library.

2:15 - Fasting is a discipline that improves my self-control. At least, that's what the say. We'll see.

2:45 - I'm reading about fasting. Lots of good articles, but you learn more by doing it.

3:00 - Ben Patterson is right. Food is a huge part of everything we do.

"What a slave I can be to food. Am I sad? I eat. Am I happy? Eat. Tired? Eat. Angry, depressed, bored? Eat, eat, eat. Do we have a social occasion? We must eat. My life can parody 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: 'Be eating always, eat continually, and eat in all circumstances.'"

Scot McKnight, a professor of mine at Trinity Seminary (His Greek class was the one class I really didn't want to quit, when I dropped out of seminary) and a Beliefnet.com blogger, defines a fast in his book, called Fasting:

"Fasting is a person's whole-body, natural response to life's sacred moments." It's the "body talking what the spirit yearns, what the soul longs for, and what the mind knows to be true."

3:11 - I just felt a twinge of happiness, contentment. I am really grateful to have a job in which I can hide away in the library, read the Psalms, write and pray.

4:21 - Oops. I went an hour without checking in on fasting. Fasting is not keeping me from being distracted and doing anything but what I need to be doing.

5:14 - I can say this. Though I have not been free from distractions, I have gotten farther on my Sunday message than I usually do on my study day. Time to quit and go home, but not for dinner.

Since when do libraries have food? Free food? As I left the SRJC Library, a table with punch and food was set up in the lobby where they have the art display. I looked away and walked fast.

5:35 - Walked by the back of the Tacqeria on the way to my car. I've seen the Tacqeria many times, but today I smelled it. It smelled delicious.

7:28 - Everytime I walk through the kitchen, I instinctively reach for a cookie, a roll, leftover food in the sink… Then I catch myself.

8:26 - Just finished a casual bike ride - about 50 minutes - and feel great.

10:30 - Itchy eyes. Allergies are getting to me. Was it too much to hope that fasting would cure my allergies? I am surprised that I have not felt much hunger all day. Temptation to eat, yes. But, not hunger.I am looking forward to break-fast, in the morning.

Summary - using the questions I gave folks on Sunday:

What does it feel like to be hungry? What is your body saying to you?

For me, I didn't feel much hunger. It was definitely not painful. But, I did hear my body, instinctively, telling me to grab food every time I saw it or smelled it. My sense of smell (to food) seemed more sensitive. I didn't feel as irritable this time. I remember fasting once and walking through a grocery store, wondering if I would be hungry enough, after a few days, to steal food, if that's what it took to eat. I hope I wouldn't. But, if my children who were hungry, I might.

Did you experience any spiritual benefit to fasting? How did it affect your praying?

I did not feel remarkably more spiritual. I think it takes more than a day to get that. I am more focused in general - in prayer and in study.

Did your experience of fasting change how you view people who are in great need?

Usually, I forget to pick up a few items for the Food Pantry. Today, I thought about it several times. Maybe I should break fast only after picking up pasta for he Food Pantry. (I asked people to bring the equivalent of the food you missed next Sunday for the Food Pantry. For June, they are requesting: Pasta Sauce, Spaghetti, Rice, Pinto Beans, Mac & Cheese.)

I'd love to read your comments - or hear them on Sunday.

A Fathers Day Video

Here is the video we’re showing in worship, Fathers Day, June 21:

Click here to see Father's Day: A Broader Perspective

If you can't see the link above, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:

http://www.evangelize.com/short_films/featured-father_s_day_a_broader_perspective.html