Week 39

Okay, so I am VERY behind in blogging on my Monday fast. Rest assured that I have managed to fast every Monday of 2011. However, I am sometimes delayed in actually blogging about my experience.

A few things have kept me from my checking this item off of my list.

One is that I have been working on the PCC Scroll. It goes to print tomorrow. I did my final edits and hit send on yesterday.

The second thing is that I left Tuesday for a trip for my job. I am actually on the plane right now (Saturday) heading home.

This trip could have been all about temptation, but God has a way of, as I like to say, protecting me from myself.

The first temptation was involving my fast from alcohol this year. I knew that there would be opportunity all week to indulge. As expected, I was tempted several times, but in the end, keeping this goal is more important than the desire to partake. I find that I am in a point where I really want to follow-up on decisions or goals I make. It’s too easy to talk and talk about what one is going to do.

The second temptation involved my abstinence. This temptation was actually removed in May, and I very thankful for it. It would have been too easy to go on that date and get caught up in the moment. Funny how in my head these type of trysts end up pregnant and STD free. Reality, who knows?

So, I decided that James 1:13-15 would be a good scripture to think about before I left.

13Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

The thing is that is that I have never gotten caught up in the moment. The choices I have made regarding sin have all been well-thought about executions of plans I had decided on previously

I recently saw an article about people getting drunk and doing outlandish and wild things. The article basically said that even when intoxicated, people know what they are doing. They just use the alcohol as a crutch and excuse. So, this week was all about consciously making choices. Knowing that temptation doesn’t just sneak up on us. Well, maybe it does. But, the temptations that sneak ups are aligned with things we have thought about and in some crazy way drawn to ourselves.