This is the final day of Fasting in the Sacred and Fit program. As we enter the final day it is time to reflect on lessons learned from eating raw food for four days, liquid foods for 2 days and fresh juice on 1 day. A fast combined with the practices initiated for the first three Beatitudes have the potential to affect us on all levels, physical, mental/emotional and of course spiritual.
The week of fasting serves as the pinnacle of the Sacred and Fit program. The Fast occurs after three weeks of focusing on our issues around our health. The first three Beatitudes (which ever interpretation or version you have chosen to examine), were aimed at focusing on the THINKING behind the health habits and bringing our health regimens under the domain of our spiritual practice.
We used the Lectio Divina to initiate a discipline of keeping the scriptures close, not just on a daily basis but on an hourly basis, on a mealtime/snacktime basis. The four practices of the Lectio Divina, lectio (choosing a verse), meditiatio (ruminating on the verse), oratio (praying from the verse), and contemplatio (listening for revelation) were assigned to the waking hours of the day. Your Sacred and Fit notebook contains pages for the thoughts and inspirations that can be captured upon waking and during contemplatio, as you go to sleep. We resume this practice for the final three weeks of the program in order to obtain direction and insight into what is needed for permanent change.
When we first introduced the Beatitudes, we invited you to consider the Aramaic Version of the scriptures. Aramaic, is the language most Biblical scholars say that Jesus the Christ spoke. All Bible experts acknowledge that Jesus did not speak Greek. We learned that, English and Greek are similar in that there is an attempt to assign letters from an alphabet to create a single word. The word then conveys a particular idea. On the other hand, Aramaic and Hebrew, use characters that can represent different words or ideas depending on the context.
We used the book Blessings of the Cosmos by Neil Douglas-Kotz as our Aramaic text. For each Beatitude, there can be six or seven possible interpretations in the Aramaic. We also provided a website for different translations of the Bible such as King James, New International Version or Amplified Bible. Which ever verse you chose, you were invited to APPLY the verse to your health habits- eating (a healthy diet of your choosing that will form the basis of your life-time eating-NO MORE DIETING; water intake- a minimum of 8 glasses/ day; exercise- a minimum of 30 minutes /day 5 days per week). The REASONS that these are not your current health practices are the focus of the verses and of prayer.
Slowly, over three weeks, the verses allow you to go deeper and deeper into self-examination. Recognizing the powerlessness over permanently changing some aspect of your health regimen. Allowing yourself to acknowledge the internal (negative) conversations you have about your body and or weight. Being willing to give up the old conversations and take on, in meekness, a renewed commitment to see yourself as God’s child, your body as holy.
Now, with this renewed commitment, we learned through this fast that it is possible to eat nothing but vegetables and fruits. We learned that it is possible to eat nothing and just drink fresh juice. We learned what it feels like to be hungry and to be refreshed by nourishing food. Some may choose to continue the fasting week for the next three weeks. In the future, the Sacred and Fit program will provide support those who choose to fast for up to 40 days.
This brings us now to the final phase of the program. Starting tomorrow we will begin by choosing a translation or Aramaic interpretation of “Beatitude #5- Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” The focus of the Beatitudes shift. We started by focusing on our own efforts to making every area, even our health/weight available to God, After the week of fasting, our weight/health is transformed into a testimony. Here, the transformational power of Spirit is welcomed to permanently alter the reasons behind the weight. The practices used in Sacred and Fit can ultimately be used in uncovering your life's purpose. After all, the reason to be healthy and fit is so that you can best fulfill the purpose of your life, your own individual calling, the thing that will give you the most exquisite joy and the greatest sense of fulfillment in this life.
Your body is a temple only because it contains the spirit of God being expressed on this earth at this time, as YOU.
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