It was August 1990 when the US had been at war for four days. It was my first memorable experience of living in a nation at war, and I was a wreck. I couldn't sleep for trying to wrap my brain around big ideas like front lines and casualties and bombs bursting in air. Those things were in that day's newspaper not just the history books anymore. The only way to gain some sense of control was to bring it all to God.

I began to fast every Monday, committed to prayer for our troops until the war ended. I didn't know a single active duty soldier, at least I was unaware of any. I was twenty, a newly-wed, and working on the tenth floor of Hibernia National Bank in downtown New Orleans. I typically sat in the break room with my brown bag because Mike was in seminary. We were starving college students still. There was a food court in the sky-scraper across the street with a lovely balcony overlooking St. Charles Street.

I headed there every Monday of the Persian Gulf War with no lunch, only my bible and prayer journal. Lunch consisted of words rather than food. They were words for others, not myself, and God ate my fears and unrest. He filled me.

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
Daniel Fast Reflections From the Beginning:
Day 1 :: Food
Day 2 :: Slow
Day 3 :: Foreign
Day 4 :: Hunger
Day 5 :: Life
Day 6 :: Free
Day 7 :: Praise
Day 8 :: Respond
Day 9 :: Interruption