Cleaning Our Cells And Our Souls

We are sojourners! How do we war against the things that war against our soul? We go deep! Physically and spiritually!

From a Forbes magazine article on fasting:

"Longo’s hypothesis is that fasting (or starvation) forces your body to “recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed” which explains the drop in the white blood cell count. Two of the key mechanisms are an enzyme called PKA and a hormone called IGF-1, both of which are reduced by fasting. Once you start eating again, your stem cells kick back into high gear to replenish the cells that were recycled."

Now that is the potential result from a physical fast. Why wouldn’t a spiritual fast have the same impact? But instead of fasting from food, why not fast from every unnecessary, worldly thing in your life – internet, TV, magazines, gossip. Force yourself to give up on anything extraneous. Maybe go on a retreat, into the woods, the desert, to a monastery. Don’t feed your passions for a few days and see if the desires recede and you begin to focus on more important things.

Just like a physical fast, a spiritual fast isn’t a one-time thing. We accumulate garbage, in our cells and in our souls, and we need to periodically flush them out to see clearly and live healthy.