The 40 Day “Fast-Swap”

I woke up this morning wayyyyy to early for a Friday and decided to finish a documentary I have been watching over the last couple of weeks. Now, before you judge me, know that I had every intention of finishing this documentary. I find that watching real stories requires a certain element of patience…I want to take in all the hard work that goes into the filming but also, embody what the subject of the story might be feeling. In this case, the documentary in question was The Alpinist (2021) which follows the story of an amazing mountainist called Marc-Andre Leclere. This 23-year old kid was relatively unknown minus the enthusiasts that followed his journey of climbing on social media and accomplished a few feats the greatest climbers had never done.

As you sit there watching the documentary, you can’t help but start to question how you are taking leaps of your own to accomplish what is on your heart to accomplish. Rather that ruin the documentary for those who might be keen to watch it, all I will say is, don’t let someone else’s story just be a story to you…let it be not just a motivation or inspiration but an interrogation of your heart that creates an impetus to do something. Hence the reason for writing this blog.

Today, I didn’t wake up with any particular motivation to write or to do anything for that matter. I have had a pretty long week in the office and am thankful for being able to work from home today. But I have been reflecting over the past couple of days of things that I need to audit in my life and as I have been reading the bible, thinking a lot about the idea of fasting a resurrection for some reason.

I will share more about it another time, but I early this year, I spent 30 days fasting in expectation for what the Lord wanted to do for the year. Now I don’t share that fact to gloat, but to genuinely say that it physically, spiritually and mentally changed my life. The story surrounding that is for another time, but I will say this, there is something about “putting to bed” an area of your life for a while only for other things to be resurrected as a result of it. Do I have all the reasons surrounding why that happens? Nope! But I figure, anything that has been tested by others and is biblical has to have some merit behind it…it’s stood the test of time, let alone it was tested by God which gives me a lot of grace to work from.

All that to say, is that there is an area of my life that I really want to see change in. And in true fashion of my relationship with God, I felt the prompting to fast and to allow God to resurrect something in my heart as I surrender to Him.

Now those who know me, know that I am terrible with fasting food. I did do it in January and it was difficult to do the fast I did. But this time around, I felt a the need to fast something different. I am doing a fast-swap. By that I mean I am swapping out things in my life for more meaningful things for 40 days straight that I wouldn’t usually do. So whether that be mindless scrolling for writing (which is day 1) or walking for sitting or playing the piano instead of TV. I am swapping things to focus more on the Lord and less on myself.

You might think I am just replacing habits with other habits. Yes, that may look the case, however, the effort to do those things requires my spirit and physical nature to come into an alignment, much like letting go of food. The discipline is what is motivating me. And in the process, I will be believing for and praying for God to resurrection things in my heart and spirit that is going to propel and accelerate me forward.

So here is to day ONE of Fast-swapping. Writing a blog instead of mindless scrolling. Come on this journey with me as we lay some things down for God to fill us back up.

I am not sure what will be at the end of this journey but I have an expectation God will refresh me at the least and speak to me.

So thanks for reading, even if it is just myself for now.

Love

Anns