Reflections on the first two days

Food: Day 2

This journey has taken me all over the place in just two days. It's been kind of crazy, I'm not even sure where to start!

Let's start with I'm sick right now... like actually sick with a nasty head/chest cold unfortunately. It's making it hard to discern whether the headache I'm experiencing is from sinus pressure or caffeine withdrawal... my guess is both! I have successfully made it through the first two days though!

Catching back up from yesterday, for month one of the Seven project (a reduction in excess/waste/stress/etc) we have food. A million different options reduced down to just seven. I kept it simple and just followed the author's choices since she had mentioned doing a lot of research to find a nutritiously balanced group. So enter:

chicken
eggs
sweet potatoes
apples
whole-wheat bread
spinach
avocados

No more coffee, no more diet coke, just water. I've been trying to keep my seasonings super simple, just olive oil, salt and pepper but we had a bit of a snafu with that tonight (more on that later).

On "Day 1" I rethought my food choices no less than 10 times after getting into this. I should've done rice. Or black beans. Or almonds. Or bananas. Definitely bananas. Why didn't I pick bananas? Yup, that was the typical thought process yesterday. That and a lot of... Why am I doing this again? And...  This was probably a bad idea.

There were several uplifting moments too. First, a lot of support from friends on facebook.

Second, an awesome service last night at Kairos, a come as you are some-what young adult Tuesday night service at Brentwood Baptist. I love this service and God has been connecting with me through this service a lot in the last few months. Tonight was no different. Aaron Bryant was giving the message again this week. Last week was completely relevant to what my Life Point small group has been studying in the "I am A Church Member" book that we're reading, about serving. This week, Aaron talked about Luke 14: 15-23 - The Parable of the Great Banquet.  The first part of this story talks about inviting the least of society, those on the margins or the outside - the poor, the ill, the disabled, the homeless, etc. to our table and not just those like us. I'm going to be pairing up some service work this month to go along with the "food" theme and I hope to make it a big point to focus on those groups of people as I do so. I will quote the second part of the parable now...

A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. ¹⁷ And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant^[c] to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ ²⁰ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’

So what do we have here... a man (God) is inviting us to his table (to the kingdom of God) not just when we die but NOW right here on earth we have this chance. And what did those that were invited say to him... I have to see to my field (my stuff, my possessions), I have to see to my oxen (my career, my earnings), I have to see to my wife (my relationships)... all of those things have become more important than accepting God's invitation. How many of us let those things (our stuff, our money, our career, our relationships) get in the way of our relationship with God? *Raises hand*.

Enter Seven. How perfect was that message last night, on the very first day of working to eliminate the stuff that gets in the way. That was encouraging to say the least! I shared the book with Aaron afterward, who mentioned that his wife just read it and that he wants to read it this week and then talk after service next week so I can share my experience with him. 

 The third positive piece of encouragement was a 2+ hour long conversation with my best friend Stephanie in my driveway in the dark last night, that has carried over to today. Needless to say, she will be my "Council" during this experience. A supporter, cheerleader, encourager and wisdom giver... and not just that, but she is going to do this with me!!!!  Hallelujah! I can't tell you what a big difference it will make to have someone going on this journey with me. We talked about EVERYTHING last night... how we want to serve, what we want to give up, what we want to gain, just life in general. There were tears, there were hugs, there were ideas and inspiration, there were two women ready to do this! I am so blessed to have such a great friend in my life and super excited to have her doing this with me.

So there have clearly been many blessings from God just in 2 days of doing this and I'm glad I was open enough to see them!

There's been some struggles too... hunger, headaches and just being a wee bit on edge (I miss you caffeine!). Tonight my hubby cooked dinner for us since I was laid up in bed feeling sick. He forgot that I was really trying hard to stick to just my 7 ingredients with limited "extras" (namely just salt, pepper, and a small amount of olive oil). I had told him this earlier but he just forgot. I pulled the chicken out of the oven tonight and it had butter, herbs and lemon all over it, and on the sweet potatoes too. Nooooooooooooo! I flipped out and reacted like a baby. lol Let's be honest here. He had just made a nice meal and really helped me out. My meal, my goals, were ruined. MY. I definitely over reacted here and it wasn't pretty. I was totally missing the point by focusing on me still. To me, it was just some butter, just some herbs and lemons. The point I was trying to make was that the poor and impoverished can't just reach into the fridge and pull out a stick of butter... so it kinda was a big deal. But at the end of the day, it wasn't. I ate my meal, it was healthy, it still consisted of the main ingredients in my 7 and it was great. It was a good learning lesson for me.

After really diving into Seven with my bff, husband, and on my own... I've realized that this experiment shouldn't just be doing what Jen Hatmaker did in her book. She looked at her family's own areas of excess and determined what to eliminate based on that. Her areas might not be the same as mine and vice versa. So I've been thinking more about how *I* want to do this and what'll work best for my family and our needs/excesses and am going to make a few changes, but also keep some things exactly the same since totally applicable to us. 

I'll explain more about that tomorrow and give a basic outline of my 7 things for the next 7 months! I plan to also talk about some of my service projects ideas for the upcoming month too.