A Place at the Table, day 24

I really DID sum up a lot of days in yesterday's post!  One feast day and four fast days!  Hard to believe that I'm now almost 5/8 of the way through this thing.  And as much as I like to "gripe" (and I DO like to "gripe") it really has been a pretty fascinating experience.

I had some good conversations today with some good friends and I began to realize something.  Eating is for me an incredibly social event.  I do everything in my power to NOT eat alone.  I've got a couple of friends (you know who you are, Drew & Delux) that I kind of have on permanent standby for when I'm facing the prospect of eating alone.  And when that doesn't work out, I usually go home for lunch and eat as quickly as possible so that I don't have to spend much time eating alone.

But this fast has changed that for me.  I suppose it's my fear of rejection that someone might comment on the oddness of my eating only potatoes, beans & rice -- even though I have eaten with multiple people while on this fast and once I have explained what I am doing, they don't look at me all that strangely.  But this fast has really shut down my socializing around meals.  I have greatly limited my social eating, especially with those who are not participating in the fast with me.

But I have kinda decided that I'm done with that.  So I had lunch with a good friend yesterday.  And coffee with a good friend today.  And dinner with three good friends tonight.  And I loved it!  My coffee appointment (which might be the focus of my blog tomorrow) was invigorating!  Despite my continuing disdain for black coffee (see, there I go "griping" again!), we had some pretty earth-shattering conversations about where this little movement goes from here.  We dreamed some dreams, had some laughs, and generally enjoyed our time together -- at least I did!

Which reminded me that this fast is about so much more than food.  It is about me truly coming to grips with reality.  It's about realizing how important community is and what it really looks like.  It's about digging deeper than every day surface conversation to figure out what God is really doing among us.  It's about connecting with Jesus on levels that can't be reached without self-discipline and a teench of sacrifice.  It's about practicing a spiritual discipline that changes you in ways that you never even knew you needed to be changed.  It's about kingdom.  Breaking out.  Within.  And without.  Like Jesus said it could.  Like Jesus said it should.  Like Jesus said it would.