Why I'm Doing This

Well, let me just say this: I hate extended fasting. It's difficult. I've read a lot of things that say that after day 9 or 10 that you start to have a lot of energy because your system has cleaned itself out and stuff, but all I've ever felt in fasting more than a day or so is empty and hungry and weak.

Having said that, there are certain things that cannot be accomplished without fasting and prayer. One is losing weight. Just joking. But losing weight is one of the pleasant side effects of fasting. My main purpose for fasting this month is my concern over the situation in Iraq. I fasted throughout the entire 23 days of the war in 2003, and it went swimmingly. The war, that is. It's the occupation that isn't going too well.

There are two things I'm sure about the Iraq situation: 1- It is a critically important event in history. 2- No one really has a good overall understanding about what's going on there. You can dismiss a lot of the media stuff out of hand because of its agenda to turn Iraq into Vietnam. You get a lot better picture of Iraq by reading Iraqi blogs or military blogs by soldiers actually there and fighting. But despite modern telecommunications, an accurate overall picture eludes us.

Trying to understand what is going on in Iraq is like trying to have a complex conversation in a packed bar. You kind of shout past each other and miss a lot of stuff.

At any rate, we know that things are messy there because war is always messy. And chaotic. We live right next door to the region. I've always been concerned with the West's failure of nerve to deal with the general threat of Islamic fascism, and I would like to see some form of democracy take root in Iraq.

Ok, that's my main reason for fasting. Other reasons are listed as follows, in no particular order of importance:

To be cleaner in my thoughts and actions.

To establish a deeper and longer time of daily devotions.

To see Greeks come to God.

To have a healthy relationship with my wife and daughter, and mother in-law.

To be more disciplined generally. I tend to let the events of the day shape my day, rather that shaping those events through a systematic use of my time. This winter I will be starting the last course of studies for my bachelor's degree which, if all goes well, I'll get in June. I'm also getting my second novel into shape, and am starting a third. This third novel is going to be a pretty big book if I do it right. Zoe is still translating the first novel into Greek, and then we'll look for a Greek publisher. Winter is an excellent time for writing and study, and I need to use what is left of it to do just that.