Responding to the Call

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Tomorrow is the Feast of Purim, which is a reminder of the story of Esther. The typical tradition tomorrow is to fast during the daylight hours and feast in the evening as a reminder of how quickly God can take us from fasting to feasting. The fast is not something we do to earn anything with God, but it does give us something to physically do to help us remember. If the fast is something you feel called to do, then make sure to rely on God to help you through the fast, rather than doing it out of will power. 

In the story of Esther, a law was written that was going to destroy God's people. All of the Jewish people outside the palace were in distress. Esther was in the palace, and everything was good for her. She could have chosen to do nothing and probably would have been ok. But Mordecai, tells her that maybe God has put her in the position of Queen, "For such a time as this." 

Esther responds to the call by proclaiming a fast. She chooses to align herself with her people and takes the risk of approaching the king about writing a new law that would override the command to wipe out all of the people. 

Purim is a reminder for us that we also have a call on our lives. That God has also put us here for "such as time as this," and that our call is to help others, which sometimes is uncomfortable. 

Today's communion is a time of gratitude for God's call on our life, and we are asking for his help to respond to His call in the right way. 

Today's Workout/Health Tip

One of the goals of health and fitness should be to make the body more responsive. Unfortunately, I think much of the health and fitness advice that is out there actually makes the body less responsive. Every food we eat and exercise we do is sending signals to the body to do things like burn fat, build muscle, get stronger, increase endurance, etc but the body must respond to these messages. Fasting is one way to make the body more responsive because it cleans out the cell receptors. Outside of yearly cycle fasts like Purim, a simple and easy way to implement fasting into our lives is by fasting for around 12 hours per day. For example, stop eating and drinking around 6-7pm and don't eat or drink again until 6-7am. This gives the body time to clean out each day and is pretty gentle. During training many people make their bodies less responsive by bombarding the body with too much work too soon. Which is why it is better to do less early on. 

I am praying for you. 

Daniel