Not the Fast I’ve Chosen – Epilogue
Posted: May 17th, 2009 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Celiac, Fasting | Tags: anger, body, daily bread, disease, diseases, epilogue, Fast, heaven, Jesus, Orthodox, orthodox priest, poison | 4 Comments »This series has barely managed to scratch the surface of many different and often deep topics. I never intended it to deeply cover everything in depth, but rather to lay the groundwork for my focus on this particular subject on this blog. I’m sure I will visit and revisit many of the topics touched on in this series in other posts and in other series. If you’ve read this series, you now know something of what I intend here, what my life has been, and how I speak and think.
I don’t know what this journey will be like. I don’t know what to expect. It’s very strange to have a whole category of food turn from something nourishing into poison. It’s even stranger when that category includes all that we normally think of in that most basic of staples, bread. Jesus, of course, transcends all. I’m not overly concerned that I am in any way cut off from his life-giving substance, especially after a reassurance from an Orthodox priest I know online and whom I trust. But bread is so central that Jesus described his body as the bread that comes down from heaven. He said that we the bread and the life. He taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
There are many worse diseases I could have and may one day have. I know that. And I’m grateful that I don’t need chemo, radiation, surgery, or any of a host of similar treatments. If I change the way I eat, I will recover. And yet it is disturbing at a very deep level when bread, the stuff of life, turns deadly for you. At least it is for me.
Thank you for reading. This particular series is concluded, but the discussion will continue.
Glad you found reassurance. Having a sort of daily Lent must feel quite odd…
Thank you for starting the blog and writing about it. I look forward with interest to whatever you want to talk about, as I look forward to “waving at you from across the room” at the sites of people we both seem to frequent 🙂
Last, but certainly not least, I say, Good for your Mom!!
Dana
Thanks. I’m not yet sure if its reassurance or not. My mind immediately started down those paths, though I’m still working it out. It does feel odd. And it sneaks up on you at odd times.
And we’re all proud of Mom! Thanks.
I recently discovered your blog and just want to thank you for this Not The Fast I’ve Chosen series. I have celiac disease and am a member of an Orthodox church and this is the first blog I’ve come across that deals with celiac in a spiritual way.
This resonates with me very much: And yet it is disturbing at a very deep level when bread, the stuff of life, turns deadly for you. At least it is for me.
Looking forward to reading more of your posts.
Thanks. I suppose that’s just the way I approach life. I tend to be less likely to break it apart into discrete sections. You don’t mention how long since you’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease. It is a change to the rhythms of life. I hope you’re doing well.