Praying for butterfly's, but got two trees instead!

Went for a run today, praying that a butterfly would land on me and I would hear God speak but I discovered two trees instead…

Hang with me while I explain, because I know it sounds a bit odd.  I heard a sermon yesterday from a pastor who had butterflies land on him during a run through a forest preserve then he heard the Holy Spirit speak to him about the direction for his life to take. 

So I thought I would give the concept a try today because I am beginning to believe that the Holy Spirit is more active then I have actually believed in the past.  So I laced up my favorite running shoes and set out with utter confidence I would have a story of a butterfly landing on me.  Even wore a bright orange running shirt to look more like a flower in hopes of attracting them!  For many people that sounds totally weird, but for anyone who has sensed an intuition, heard a whisper or had a dream that is more super then natural, it makes sense.

So I went for a run in a local forest preserve fully expecting a butterfly would land on me and that specifically it would land on me in a new stretch of trail that is by our new house.  Who cares it is almost 100 degrees in IL, I had butterflies waiting for me!

I wanted to hear from God today, especially after reading Psalm 1:3, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all he does, he prospers.”  I so wanted a word from God and thought a butterfly would usher it in and it happened!

That verse has special meaning to our family because when we first heard it in 2015 at church during a message series called “Evergreen” and it gave Jackie and I a vision for RockSolid Life.  (RockSolid Life is our ministry to help people “Be You, Take Courage and Go!” in the area of health, fitness and nutrition).  We even went to TJ Maxx and bought an expensive looking (but cheap) watercolor painting to hang in our living room to mark the meaning of that phase.

What we did not know was that when we moved this past year the same tree that is in our watercolor painting from 2015 would be the exact tree in our backyard.  Literally same tree a year later.  You can tell in the watercolor that the tree is changing seasons but there are no yellows or reds in the leafs.  I never knew a tree to not produce color in the fall until I saw our very mature sycamore tree in our backyard go from green to brown without a color change.  Seriously the Lord provided us the exact house with a backyard tree which matched a painting we purchased a year before.  Kind of supernatural cool!

Ok, back to my run.  So I am running down the new section of trail waiting for a butterfly to land on me.  And guess what?   I see one!!!  I am giddy with excitement.   So I stop, take out my headphones and stand for a few minutes waiting for heaven to part, time to stand still and a shower of butterflies to envelop me.  Guess what…I watch the butterfly flutter away into the woods and not come back.  Started to think, maybe that was the wrong butterfly.  Maybe that was the non-holy spirit one.  So I stood still for a bit longer waiting for another one to show up and land on me.  Then a heard a bird and looked up and heard the Holy Spirit whisper “walk towards the bird”.  It was an orange bird I had never seen before in my life.  Like never…even at my grandma’s house where she feed birds over the winter and we would watch them for hours as kids.  I started to think, perfect I am going to have a new species of bird land on me.  That makes for an even better story then a butterfly.  A mystery orange bird would be perfect.  So I walked closer to the bird with my shoulder prepared for its landing.  It was chirping away and I was ready.  Guess what?  It flew away too. 

So, I am now left alone on the trail with no butterflies and no birds to give me the direction in life.  I had prayed and believed that I was going to hear from God and the new section of trail was 30 feet from ending. I started to think I had got it all wrong. 

That was until I looked up and saw two younger sycamore trees rooted and established next to a stream just a few feet off the trail and a few feet before the new section of trail ended.  I smiled, laughed at myself and heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “You and Jackie are young, like these trees.  Have patience my son and I will be with you as you grow.  The vision I have given you and Jackie is true and the new path I am taking you on is the right direction to go, just have patience.”

Peace entered my heart in that moment and I will never forget the fact that God used a butterfly to get me to pause, a bird to call me closer and two trees to teach me a life lesson.

The bible comes alive through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirt.

Jeremiah 17:7-8: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Psalm 1:3: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all he does, he prospers.”

It’s so hard to not give up when all the butterfly’s and birds fly away and you are left standing on an empty trail.  Maybe just stand for one more second and see what happens.     

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How Not Eating For 19 hours Feels

Doesn't not eating for 19 hours sounds so foreign and weird?  Sure did to me at first, but now I am beginning to strongly embrace it.  And breaking a fast (break-fast) with a bowl full of nuts tastes so good!

Here is what I am trying, how it feels so far and then let you can decide if you want to try it yourself.

I was unsettled with how my body felt before I started this journey.  I was squishy in areas that are stubborn for me, eating certain foods caused my brain to be foggy, I was napping on the weekends consistency, needed caffeine during a workday and was just plain frustrated.  I did not feel as good as I thought I should based on the focus I have with my personal health and fitness.

So I decided to try something new and tinker with my health plan.

When I first heard the concept of what is coined, "intermittent fasting" I was shocked.  I remember it clearly.  I was on a cruise ship at an all-you-can-eat very fancy dinner restaurant with friends and one of my wife's friends said dinner was the first food she had eaten that day.  Surely she was kidding right or being too strict with eating - or so I thought?  I later learned what she was doing was called intermittent fasting and it was very successful for her personal health story.  I dabbled with it a bit last year but it never stuck for one reason or another, but that was the start.

Basically the concept of intermittent fasting is going without food for an extended period of time then stacking all your eating within a short eating window. Not trying to cut calories, just eating quickly!  You can also do an alternate day fast (haven't tried that yet), where you only eat on alternating days or a longer term fast (haven't tried that either).  I have personally been going for a 19/5 split, so only eating during the 2pm-7pm window then fasting the remainder of the day.  19 hours off, 5 hours on.  Following roughly the outline established by Dr. Bert Herring (http://www.fast-5.com/).

The concept behind it is that in those 19 hours your body depletes its stored glucose and then switches to burning stored fat and your insulin levels stay low.

Fat is money in the bank, and I am asking the teller for a withdrawal.

I am only beginning to understand insulin and how it affects our bodies but when a doctor says, "If you keep your insulin levels low, chronic disease has a very difficult chance getting started."  I tend to listen and it makes a lot of sense to me from a logically health standpoint.  Fake foods which are processed and chemical constructed to be addictive with added sugar spike insulin and our bodies continue to fight, fight, fight against the sugar rush we are giving them.  Our bodies enter a point of "dis-ease" because we have not cared for them properly.

I am convinced that when God gave commands in the Old Testament and demonstrated in the life of Jesus that fasting & prayer are connected, that he actually knew what the most ideal way was for our bodies to operate.  Just now science and I are understanding that fasting can heal our bodies, our brains like running on ketones and eating a diet based on the whole and super foods God made is really the best life eating plan.

So I am 1 1/2 weeks into my intermittent fasting journey and here is what I have discovered so far.

1) I have not died...God designed our bodies to adapt and restore themselves! Down 5lbs also!
2) Day 2 is the worst, but day 3 makes you happy you did not bail on day 2 because of the new energy you have.
3) Eating lots of healthy fat (like nuts) does not get boring.
4) Stress is a food trigger.  It is MUCH harder to not eat when I am at home with 3 kids then it is at work.
5) I feel my body changing, definition forming and my energy level increasing.
6) It is freedom to not think about food for 19 hours.
7) It's ideal to be almost carb/sugar free before attempting fasting or your body will scream at you as it did me last year when I first tried it.
8) It is well worth the effort and time it takes to tinker.
9) It is hard to do alone, but not impossible.  Find a friend, spouse or colleague to do it with so that when you have to pass on that tray of bagels at work or just grab a coffee for lunch you have support.  Or join me and we can do it together.
10) You are a sample size of 1...just give it a try for 3 weeks like I am and see what you think.  All you have to lose is your addictive dependence on food and maybe also a few pounds, cause your body is burning those stored fat cells!

Keep following my journey over the coming weeks.

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