What?!?!? and other FAQs

Since our family project is not your average, everyday thing to do, you’re not alone if you’re wondering, really, what the heck we’re up to with FFE.  So, I decided it was time to do a very bloggy thing and answer a few frequently asked questions.

Why are you doing this?!?!

We didn’t just dream it up, and can’t claim any originality for the idea or general structure of FFE.  First and foremost, we believe God is the author of this for our family.  Backtracking just a bit, two years ago it was very clear to us, in a Spirit led way, that we were supposed to sell our house and move to something smaller, both financially and practically.  So, in obedience, we did, and within a few months all was said and done.  It was a great feeling to give or dispose of a ton of our possessions.  So, we had a less stuff and a smaller box, but we didn’t really reform a lot of habits and the excess just kept creeping up on us.  Fast forward to Christmas 2011 and I “stumbled” onto the blog of Jen Hatmaker from Austin, TX.  She is a Christian author and speaker, and she was just releasing her latest book:  7:  An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.  After reading the intro chapter, I was totally captured by her mutiny against the excess, greed and selfishness of contemporary American consumer culture.  I was utterly convicted of my own buy-in and participation in the very things that Jesus Christ would have been against.  I shared about 5 minutes of it with Tom as we walked together one night and he said, “Okay.  Let’s do it.”  And so, Fasting from Excess was born.

What do your kids think?

Brutal honesty here.  Their initial reaction was not good.  Not good at all.  We heard things like:  “This is a terrible idea.”  “I don’t want to do this.  Don’t make us do this.”  “This is the stupidest idea you have ever had.”  “Can I still have candy?”  After our initial talk about it with the girls, Tom said, “Well, that didn’t go very well.”  But, since we’re about being parents first and friends second with our kids, we persisted and told them that they don’t have a choice about what we’re doing, but they do have a lot of choices in how we do it.  Since we’ve started, there have been remarkably few complaints about food.  We’ve also had good conversations about things that matter to them.  They have each, in their own way, acknowledged a new sensitivity to food being wasted – at school, in their own lunches, etc.  They have also thrown out suggestions for how we can serve others during our food fasting month.  More about that in the coming week.

How are other people reacting?

It’s interesting.  I’d put the reactions into 3 camps:  (1) the ones who totally get it; (2) the ones who get the waste and excess part of it but don’t necessarily connect with the Jesus-roots of it; and (3) the ones who hear about it, don’t ask a single follow up question, and deftly move on to a different subject.  I am very mindful of my own influence on how others react.  I have caught myself more than once, sadly, not sharing “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” about FFE because I assume or expect a certain kind of reaction.  I think this is an important growing edge for me in the whole scope of FFE, because at some level, I am denying Christ when I don’t describe what we’re doing in a way that honors God and is sensitive to the receiver.  This is my issue, not theirs, and I appreciate your prayers on this. 

What else are you going to fast from?

We think there is a lot of wisdom in the 7 areas that Jen Hatmaker fasted from in her experiment:  food, clothing, possessions, media, spending, waste and stress.  We may change up something on that list depending on how things shape up, but for now it feels pretty on target for us.  We have already varied in some significant ways as far as how we are doing our food month, so we won’t necessarily pattern each month’s fast after her book.  What we try to keep in front of us is a sense of personal and family call to do this, and we trust that we will be led to fast in the way we are supposed to.  For example, as Tom and I pray about and discuss the clothing month, we may each structure our fasts differently, and the girls will do something different as well.  This is not about legalism, it is about personal obedience.  At the end of each month, I hope we’ll plan a special break the fast event, and we’ll figure out what we’ll keep doing, stop doing, and start doing based on what we’ve learned from the month.

Why blog about it?

I think there are two answers to this question:  reflection and accountability.  It helps us to capture, process, and reflect on the experience when we are intentional about putting words around it.  We benefit from the “public” nature of it in that it ups the ante on our commitment and gives us some sense of accountability for doing what we have committed to the Lord to do.