Repent

I just got to work but I'm going to take about ten minutes to get these thoughts out.  While this blog has recently been dedicated to the trials and tribulations of my dissertation writing, I am going to "get religious on you."

I'm currently fasting.  While it is a very difficult type of fast (no meat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, or processed foods - try cooking for your family when you can even lick your fingers ONCE!) I actually really enjoy it and look forward to it.  I'm on day 6 which means I've gotten over the blood-sugar low of days 2 & 3.

But while I am fasting my belly, so to speak, the point is really to find a focus for prayer with God.  And anyone who has read this blog or talked to me about what I do in my free time would know what my focus is: my dissertation, duh.  And specifically, my focus for worship with God, for this year's fast, is how I stay motivated.  Anyone who has read my posts on this blog or on FB would know that I am a manic graduate student - up and down; it'll get done, it'll never get done.

Meanwhile, I've been gaining weight.  What does this have to do with anything?  Well, I wish "nothing" but the problem is "everything."  I am such a balanced character, and maybe it is because I grew up learning my academic and studying skills while dancing 15 hours a week, that I cannot find the time to write if I don't balance it with exercise.  I cannot separate the brain function of thinking and brainstorming with the necessity of adrenaline from a good workout.  Otherwise, I find myself square in front of the television mentally harping on who I am, what I am doing, my waste of time, episode after episode.

So today I read my daily devotion for the Daniel Fast and it was about the word "repent."  While it is usually used to "be sorry" it can also mean "to reconsider or think differently."  Another blog I read about dissertation-writing is entitled, "Old ideas and new perspectives."  Add that to the fact that I have somehow found a way to exercise and write (and raise my family and work my job) and I would say that God is helping me to repent; the fast is helping me to take my old ideas and apply new perspectives. 

It's Day 4. Here's to hoping (I say that a lot, I know) I can keep this up and that this blog is not just another "high" in my manic graduate student career.

#thedanielfast #lelizlaw