Strength Office 681

One of our supporters buttonholed me on the street and said “You keep touting Gandhi, but I don’t like what he did to his young female relatives.”

I said “He fucked up. He repented. I am for forgiveness.”

He said, “I am for forgiveness, too.”

This is the second time in 6 months I have experienced this confrontation.

There are tools Gandhi used and things he taught that are worth remembering.

Perhaps, I will write them out in a more contemporary language so that we can continue to profit from what God revealed to him…without all the political misunderstanding that surrounds him, currently.

Strength Office 682

Three separate doctors have told me, independently, about the health values of fasting.

“It gives your body time to rest”, they all say.

My old idea of fasting was: Nothing but water for a period of time, say 3 to 10 days.

But I can simply fast one meal in a day, or two meals.

This practice is not approved by OA or FA, because the fear is that it “sets someone up” for binging. If that is true about you…don’t do this.

I have done partial fasts for six days now and I find that it affects my meal taking, not as a “set up” for binging, but rather that I feel like I want, or need, less food at mealtime.

That is very helpful to me as I get older because my body doesn’t metabolize food the way it used to.

For me, these days, my relationship with God is more about food and exercise, not so much around sex or alcohol, so this tool is helpful.

In Philippians it says:

“ Their god is their stomach “

Partial fasting helps me eradicate this unintentional obeisance to an unworthy God, that I was unconscious I was surrendering to…

Strength Office 683

I sponsored a man, on and off, for 18 years.

He was the richest man I ever worked with, with 300 million dollars, 30 cars and two mansions.

But, he was miserable…because he couldn’t get his wife to act like his hooker.

I asked him if sex with the hooker was worth 150 million, 15 cars and one mansion.

He said “No“, so I suggested some chastity, so that he could appreciate the sex he did have, instead of feeling sorry for himself about the sex he did not have.

When I was introduced to chastity in 1988 it was required that you do a minimum of 60 days to speak in a particular SLAA meeting…kind of like FA requires 90 days before they let you speak there.

But, like the above office on fasting, I can chose to fast for different lengths: five days, a week, or just a day.

There is something positive, unifying, congealing  and integrating that happens to my mind the moment I decide to be chaste.

I have only done it, intentionally, for three days now, but I feel very focused, yet very relaxed and very “Let-go-and-let-God”.

Like everything else in my life…it’s “three hours at a time”.