Spiritual Discipline?: Fasting

Obviously, I don't presume many people to read my blog. However, I still like to write in it every now and then. I have a couple different posts floating in my head. One or two have been started and stalled for some poor reason.

However, onto the topic at hand.

I took a summer intensive course where I went to class for a week. Over the course of 6 weeks (a week prior to the class, the week of class, and a month following the class), I wrote papers on, studied, and learned about Discipleship. It was a phenomenal course and I really took a lot with me.

The course covered spiritual disciplines, which leads me to this blogpost. I am currently in the middle of a "fast." I never really thought I was practicing a spiritual discipline with this current fast, but at some point I realized that I am. So, I am not currently listening to secular music (well, when I have control of the music). This is an extremely difficult task for me. I didn't completely renounce Christian music when I started listening to other kinds. Yet, more recently I just realized how rough my spirit must be with all the music I am pouring into it. I still really enjoy Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, and the lot of them all on the pop radio stations. However, I felt like it was time to pour something more positive and encouraging (ok, KLOVE joke!, but kind of serious in that creepy kind of way) into my spirit.

I have found that there is Christian music out there that I enjoy. And I have found that I really do sense a difference in my spirit. I never set a time limit or "boundary" for my fast so it is an indefinite one, which I know will end at some point. Yet, for now I know this is what I need to be doing. Even when I'm really screwing up with focusing on Christ and the last thing I want to listen to is "Jesus music," I tell myself that I have to. It may not be what I want to listen to, but it helps anyway, especially with some of the songs I've been listening to. This leads me to the reason I started posting at all.

I am sitting here reading in bed and listening to my "Jesus music." I tell you what, every now and then I just get so wrapped up in a song that I can't focus on my reading. It happened yesterday, too. And a week and a half ago, it happened while driving in my car. I almost started crying when I finally fully heard a song instead of just promos on the radio for it. These things may just be a line or may be the whole song.

Sometimes, my spirit just gets overwhelmed and I can't help but start to pray, which is weird 'cause this isn't something I have done in a while. Yet, I like it because I see growth and a love for my Savior in a way that I have either never seen or haven't seen in a long time.

This excites me and kind of scares me, but it's a good thing!
So, look for my posts (yes, I'm going to write the first one now) about these songs that keep doing something in my mind or heart.