Master Cleanse

Day four.
Tomorrow is the half way point.
The hardest part of the day is my morning salt water flush.
Being the sixth time doing this cleanse,I am puzzled by the fact that the morning flush gets harder each time.
I decided rather spontaneously to start the cleanse this week because I had been battling a cold and was already basically fasting...drinking copious amounts of herbal teas with lemon and honey and eating very little. IT was easy to transition into just drinking for ten days.
I wanted to do the fast around lent because of its symbolism and also because I was in need of it.
My body is out of whack with winter isolation..very little outside activities and a bout of depression securely rooted in our recent circumstances and more than adequately fed by the bitter cold imprisoning weather.
A physical lethargy has crept in..and taken up residence.
Moving my body seems to take too much effort...except for the muscles in my arm that have more than enough stamina to transport food from plate to mouth.
I have discovered...or should I say: rediscovered the age old truth that desire is not enough.
Desire for a healthy..fit..muscular...toned body is not enough.
I believe the right things about food..and exercise.
You could say I have the right orthodoxy...the right way of believing.
But am sadly lacking in ortho-praxis....the right way of living out what I believe.

Oooh...time for the transition from natural to spiritual...
Can you see where this is heading?

I am reading a dangerous book.
The title for all you who dare is:
"Irresistible Revolution"
( Shane Claiborne)

I am also reading another very dangerous...unsafe book:
Some of the text in this book is written in red.
It has many authors.
I have read it many times ...but recently discovered that although I had professed to be a believer...I was not being much of a follower...and at my age that truth has begun to scare me.

It is pretty crazy when after all these years...the author of the book tells you that he loves you..is pleased with you...and now wants you to follow him and you begin to understand that it will cost you everything you have..all that you believe in and maybe your life.
That it is not about being understood so much as misunderstood...it is not about living so much as dying..it is not about having..so much as losing..it is not so much as being accepted as being rejected and hated....
It is not about being safe.

Did he really mean what he said?

There are safer ways to live than by being a follower of the One.

I am on day four of The Master Cleanse...almost half way through.
I am at the beginning of another fast... one designed by the Master.
This one's for life.

I believe Jesus really meant what he said.
In the Sermon on the Mount and the Beattitudes ( Matthew 5)
To the rich young ruler. (Matthew 19: 16-30)

Shane Claiborne puts it like this:

"There are cooler ways to live than by trying to follow the gospel...but look on the bright side, if you end up in jail, historically, you will be in very good company. Jail has always been an important place for Christians. In eras of injustice, it becomes the Christian's home.
So live real good, get beat up real bad. Dance until they kill you, and then dance some more.
That's how this thing seems to work."

It takes a while in this culture for things to sink in.
We are so numb...medicated..sedated...overfed...over indulged...over satisfied..
So indoctrinated with the media..sermons..propaganda: that we are entitled..we are good..we are free... we are superior...we are blessed..privileged..

We need a Master Cleanse..we need Jesus to do a clean sweep in the temple.
I need it.

I am not content to be a believer.
I am no longer satisfied with tongues..miracles..knowledge..prophecy...

Without LOVE they are nothing.

Loving my family..friends according to scripture...is not enough.

Where are my enemies
Where are the poor...the wounded...the crippled...the naked..the sick...the addicts?
They are where they have always been... not in my neighborhood..

I am done with believing....
Following has become my only option...

Losing my life...to gain it.

Jesus is for losers....

Master of losers...

Cleanse my heart...

teach me to follow.