#203: Erin Davis: Fasting & Feasting
Erin Davis wants to help you wrestle with your food and your faith. Far too often we ignore the aspect of our relationship with food and what that means when we follow Jesus.
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EP. 203
Tony: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Reclamation Podcast, where our goal is to help you reclaim good practices for following Jesus. If we haven't met yet, my name is Tony and I'm your host with over a decade in the local church. I care passionately. About helping you connect with Jesus in practical ways.
Today's conversation, Woo, is preaching to me. It's about a resource that has to do with our spiritual approach to food. Erin Davis is an author in speaker theologian and her latest resource fasting and feas. Is so good. She's got a message for you when it comes to your relationship with food, and it's an important one.
We talk about that. We talk about so much more. We talk about raising families and just what it looks like. She was an absolute delight to have on the podcast. If you enjoy today's conversation, do me a favor, [00:01:00] hit that subscribe button where every, Listen a podcast. We've a rating, a review on iTunes or Spotify, and the absolute highest compliment you can give us.
Share this episode with a friend, maybe somebody who you talk to about food, cuz you know if you're alive, you're probably dealing with it. . Now. Without any further ado, here's my conversation with Aaron Davis. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm excited today to have author, speaker, and theologian, Aaron Davis.
Aaron, thank you so much for being here today.
Erin: Oh, thanks for having me. I'm eager for this conversation.
Tony: Well I, it's not very often I get a book that sent to me or, or that I get to talk about that. It hits me in a personal spot and food really does that for me. So, we'll talk about that in a minute.
But I love to start from the macro perspective and I, I love to ask this question to someone like you who's written. Have you written a hundred books? It's 60 is what I counted somewhere in that neighborhood.
Erin: A bunch. Yeah.
Tony: How [00:02:00] would you describe the call that God has placed on your life?
Erin: Mm, What a great question, Question to wrestle with cuz I think there's a lot of bad answers floating around there. Well, all followers of Jesus have the same call. All people have the same call. Love God and love people. So that's the primary call on my life and, The, I don't know that it's secondary parallel is to glorify God with everything I got and that includes my gifts.
And God has gifted me as a communicator that sometimes people makes people feel uncomfortable. Like I'm bragging. I'm not bragging. I have nothing in my own string, but from from a little bitty girl before I even knew the sound of God's. I had these gifts inside of me as a writer and a communicator.
So because I love the Lord, because I want every second of my life to honor him, I use those gifts for his glory to the best of my abilities as a flawed woman. So the call on my life is really to write. And teach and communicate in ways that draw people to Jesus. That includes parenting. My [00:03:00] children. I have four little boys.
It includes loving my husband. It includes loving my neighbor. It's not just the public stuff. In fact, the public stuff is really not where it's at. It's the private stuff that I hope I'm using my gifts the best that I can. But the call in my life is to use everything he's given me to point people.
Tony: And it looks like you've been super faithful to that call, which I I appreciate. I, I'm always curious somebody who's written as much as you have, how, how do you decide where God is leading you? How do you hear God's voice? In the writing prompts. Right, Because it, this is, I mean, you kind of have different themes in your writings and your, your ERR series and kind of like the, but it's, they're different, but they're all kind of in streams that feel a little bit similar to me.
Yeah. Am I reading that wrong? Yep. You're reading that shed some light on, on how you hear from I am a
Erin: One trick, got on all that and that one. Is that the Bible is the source of life and transformation for those of us who are being [00:04:00] regenerated day by day by Jesus. And so I'm always looking for a new angle to get people to treasure.
Well first read and then treasure, and then apply God's word. So that's the stream ice swim in how I hear God's word is in his word. I. People hear different ways. I think there's obviously some similarities. For some people, music is where they really, the Lord really moves them. For somebody else, it might be something else, but for me, it's in the Bible that I hear him speak.
And then the next step from that is I. I'm a born teacher. I say I'm a teacher at a cellular level, so I almost can't sit on what the Lord is showing me in his word for myself. Sometimes I need to, because sometimes it's not for public ingestion. It's just for me and what the Lord was doing in my life, but I just, I need to share it.
And so then that writing process happens. Usually I've taught it many times before I ever sit down to write it, so I've taught it to my sons. I've taught it in a, in a Bible study setting. Maybe I've taught it at an event. And I don't know, [00:05:00] usually a, a nerve gets exposed. That's what's happened with this book.
Yeah. Where I go, Okay, the church. Doesn't know how to think about this or doesn't know what the Bible says about this. And I, I say I'm always willing to pull the pin off that grenade. I may not have all the answers, but I'm willing to try and figure it out together and then give it to other people. So the writing process is really precious to me, cuz I feel like the Lord speaks to me in a really unique way when I am writing.
Now I'm not saying Aaron Davis books are like canonized. They're not, it's not inspired in the same way. Right. The scripture is, but I don't know. There's a uniqueness. . I think the volume on his voice maybe gets turned up a little bit when I'm writing. I don't know why that is. I can't explain it all, but it's, I, I, I love it when it happens.
Tony: How do you know, how do you distinguish between God's voice and just maybe a friends or your own or, you know, I always love to joke about the bad burrito from the night before. Like, what, you know, what, what are some of your, like, go to [00:06:00] checkpoints to be like, Okay, that's, that's from God, that's not from Aaron.
And I know that this is. This is how I can be obedient.
Erin: Well, I would define wisdom this way. Wisdom is insight that is smarter than I know I am. So I've never been the smartest person in the room. I mean, I'm, I'm okay. I can hold my own. But when I get that sense of something that I wouldn't have come up with on my own, I pay attention to that.
Cuz that's the shepherd's voice often. God's voice always lines up with his word. Always, always, always. So really, His word, it, it's a fail safe. If I feel like that God is speaking to me through his word, well, of course he is. It's his word. So that's the plum line for me. And God, if you read scripture, he's obsessed with the building of his kingdom and not all that concerned with the building of individual kingdoms, even when those individual kingdoms are nations and I, in my flesh, Tend to obsess over my little K kingdom.
What do [00:07:00] people think about me? What do I want God to do for me? What is going on in my life? That voice, I mean, I know the sound of that voice. I've been listening to it for 42 years. God's voice instead is others focused, kingdom focused. So I tend to know that's him when I'm thinking about something other than myself, cuz I'm a woman of flesh.
I gaze at my belly button all day long if left in my own devices and. , God's voice pulls me out of that rhythm.
Tony: I Can we drill down on that a bit? Yeah. Cause I, I think that there's probably some people listening who were like, Yes, but if I, if I build my castle, then my castle can help build the kingdom.
Mm-hmm. . And there it feels like there's always a tension between you know, success and I'm, air quotes, if you're listening Sure. I'm using air quotes. Right. Success and and joyful obedience. Mm. Right. And, and like, how do you. Can, I mean, you're in a world that says, Hey, we need to promote you. We need promote what you're doing.
You're writing, you're writing, you're writing, [00:08:00] you're writing, like how, how do you, how do you beat back the voices in your head?
Erin: Mm. It's constant. I, I haven't won that battle. A couple of things come to mind. One, I've always said that there's a reason why humility and humiliation are such similar words.
I feel like the Lord has discipled me through humiliation so many times, and I've learned to embrace it very, very early on, on this writer, teacher journey. It was like my first. Big conference and people were lining up to have me sign their book. That had never happened before, so I was starting to feel pretty good.
I went to the bathroom before that book signing. I brought a Sharpie with me, special sharpie, and I dropped it in the toilet and I was like, Okay, humility through humiliation. Here it is. And that's happened to be so many other times like my family. They don't think I'm anything special and that's a mercy.
Sure. They see me at my worst way often than my best. My boys, I have two boys who are teenagers now, and they're just [00:09:00] baffled by the thing. When they see me in public places and people respond to me, they're like, We don't get it, mom. I'm like, I know. It's weird. That's not the real world. This, our world at home is the real world.
So I'm grateful for. Just the tethering that my family provides for me. But walking out, humility, I don't know how you get there. I mean, the second you think I'm humble, it, it slipped through your hands. So it's a constant and I'm very honest with the Lord about my desires cuz he knows him anyway, like when fasting and he.
Came out, I just said, Lord, I want it to be a New York Times bestseller. You know that, you know, I have that desire in me, you know, whether that's a good desire for me or a really bad desire for me. So I'm just gonna be honest about it and we'll see what you do. So it's kind of that constant, you know, Jesus talked to us about abiding, and it's that.
Yeah, there's not a formula. I can't give you a checklist. It's just walking in the spirit day by [00:10:00] day. And that takes daily obedience, daily surrender, daily humility. So I haven't cracked the code, but hopefully I'm growing in that.
Tony: How old are your boys, if I can ask?
Erin: Yeah, you can. The oldest is 14 and then the next is 12 and then nine.
Tony: And then, you're in the thick of it.
Erin: A in it. So all boys too, I feel like that adds a layer. All boys.
Tony: I have two boys in a princess. Okay. And so when Shiloh was born, I pulled the boys aside and said, Hey, whatever you do, protect your sister. Mm-hmm. . And for like eight years, it was always like, protect your sister.
And then once she got to be about eight and I realized what we were working with, I was like, Always protect yourself. She protect yourself. I got nothing. I got nothing. She's, she, it's Shiloh's world and we're all just working in it. Aw. But she's my princess and she can have whatever she wants. Yeah. So there I said it.
Everybody knows. Do you do anything devotional wise with them? I know, I know that this latest resources are devotional. Yep. I'm always curious to steal really [00:11:00] good family ideas on helping our families connect with Jesus. What ideas can we steal from, from you guys?
Erin: Yeah, let me, let me get paint the picture for you.
You've probably assessed my personality type in the five minutes we've been talking. I say I'm not type A, I'm Type A a, I'm strong firstborn personality, and I pale in comparison to the love of my life. Jason Davis, I mean, he is, he, he puts me under the ground and what he can accomplish in a day. He is such a strong personality.
Sometimes you see families our size and they're very serene and everyone is dressed and clothing in their right mind and scripture would. We're not that we're extremely tornadic, extremely energetic for very strong personalities of my kids. And so our, it's a, it's a constant exercise in creativity and it's never, it never works for long what we try, but I'll tell you what we're doing right now.
School started not long ago here, and I said to my oldest two every morning [00:12:00] before school, I will be in the living room reading my Bible at six. If you wanna join me, I would love to have you. If you'd rather get some extra sleep, that's great too. You can either set an alarm and get up with me at six, or you, I'll get you up on your own at six 30.
Well, they haven't missed very many mornings. They set their alarms. Wow. They come downstairs. I've started making three cups of tea instead of one. It's not like we're exegeting the minor prophets together, but they have their Bible open. Sure. I have my Bible open just today, noble. He's my 12 year. Said, Hey mom, what were the names of the rivers and Genesis?
I said, Let me find him. So I told him, he said, We've been studying. Mesopotamia in geography and some of the sea of the rivers are the same. And I'm like, Yeah. So he's connecting some dots. That was it. That was as deep as we got. So we're doing that with the littles. Bedtime reading time is our secret.
Sure. We just finished reading the little pilgrims progress with them and Good questions came out of that. I'm reading the Screw [00:13:00] tape Letters with the Bigs. Some good questions come out of that. I try to play music in the car. I love seeds, family worship and songs for saplings cuz they're both state straight scripture and we find some good kid oriented podcast too.
So it's just like D on me six tells us, you know, you talk about it as you go and you talk about it at the gate you talk. That's family discipleship in our house. And I hope it's always that way. My two went to camp this summer and you know, I'm a boy mom. If you say, What did you learn at camp, you're gonna get nothing.
So I just, a couple days after they got back from camp, I said, It seems like the Lord really did some cool stuff in your life at camp. Mama would love to know about it, just cuz I didn't get to be there. Would you write it down for me? And I gave him a notebook. and they did. So we didn't have to talk about it.
That, you know, that doesn't always go very well with my teenage boys, but they wrote it down for me, so then I knew how to pray. So, I don't know, I'm just trying to constantly keep up with them and find creative ways to engage in their spiritual formation. [00:14:00] I think that's
Tony: beautiful. I love that. I, Speaking of family, I, I love to look at dedication pages.
Mm. And your dedication page in your latest book is to Aunt Rhonda, and I was wondering if you could tell me about her and why she was the, the person that God put on your heart to dedicate this book to.
Erin: Well, here's where the tears probably come. So my mom, her name is Jenny. She has a twin sister named, And I have a twin sister named Nikki.
So we're twins from twins, and my mom and her twin are identical twins. And my Aunt Rhonda has always just had a special place in my heart. She oozes joy. She welcomes you into her home. No matter what's going on. We've always just been buds. But right now together we're walking a really difficult road in which is that my mama, Jenny was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in her late 50.
which is really early. And then of course her twin sister was also in her late fifties. And we're [00:15:00] walking that path out and anybody who's listening who has walked that path knows it is the valley of the shadow of death. And it's long and it's challenging. , you grieve your loved one over and over and over, even though they're not dead.
They're not your loved one. Mm-hmm. . And we have just, she and I have just walked it in step early on we said, We're gonna get to the other side of this together, and we are. And so just last week we had to take the difficult, difficult part of that journey, which was moving my mom into a memory care facility.
Everybody hopes they can keep their loved one at. And it, it can't always happen. It's not always the best care. And man, as we faced that day, both of us thought, How, how are we gonna, how are we going to leave her here knowing she might be afraid? Mm-hmm. . But the way we did it is we sat together with her, It's a beautiful facility.
We sat with my mom in the garden for a long time and then we looked at each other and my Aunt Rhonda, Surrender and I said [00:16:00] surrender, and we walked out. Wow. And so we she's precious and she's walking this journey with such tremendous grace and faith. She deserves more than a dedication in a book. She deserves a crown of glory for sure.
So that's my Aunt Rhonda. I love her.
Tony: Well, thank you so much for sharing that. That's that's beautiful. Yeah. And important. God's good in the. . Yeah. Amen. Amen. One of the things that I appreciate in the way that you talk about fasting and feasting is that you're very clear in kind of the intro that it's not one or the other.
Mm-hmm. it. It's a rhythm. Yep. And I, I was hoping that you might be able to kind of help us see the rhythm of fasting and feasting from kind of the 30,000 viewpoint of, of, cuz there's in the devotional there are fasting days and there are feasting days and you kind of draw it out there together like that.
Can you help us understand the rhythm and how important that is? How we connect with God.
Erin: Yeah, I mean here's the basic building block that we can build on, which is that [00:17:00] God cares about our rhythms. In fact, he designed them. Mm. I once heard a pastor say that God must care about the mundane, cuz there sure is a lot of it.
And he does. And I think sometimes we're gravitating towards. Those mountaintops, that's a Christian way we describe it. And God cares about the daily, He cares about work and rest. That's a rhythm. He cares about lamentation and rejoicing. That's a rhythm. And as I started to try and understand a biblical approach to food, which was a journey that felt a little bit uncharted, frankly, because I'd heard a lot on either end of the spectrum.
What I saw was that fasting and feasting is a rhythm we see in scripture, and I think it mirrors, okay, take just the food part of it. Fasting and feasting means what it sounds like. But then I think there's next level, which is that God does call us to life of self denial of taking up our cross and following him.
That would be the fasting, laying down ourselves for him, but he also calls us to what he calls [00:18:00] himself, an abundant life. A life of joy. Celebration, and that would be the feasting piece. So the, you know, it's not a call to fast one day and feast another, which is how the book's laid out. That's not the daily call in our lives.
But I think as we approach food, we gotta ask a couple of diagnostic questions. Do I embrace food as a God given gift and as evidence that he is good and he wants good things for me, That's the fa feasting part. And. Am I willing to walk out my faith in Jesus in every area of my life, including what I put on my plates?
And if so, as I see fasting in the Bible, which it is all over the Bible, by the way, as is feasting. Sure, yeah. Is that something that I'm at least willing to say, God is this for me? What would it look like in my life? He doesn't call us too fast forever. We'd travel up and die. He's built [00:19:00] us the need for.
He also doesn't call us to feast forever, then we know there's problems on that end of the spectrum. So I'm gonna take us back to that abiding it's walking in step with him, not swinging from extreme to extreme, which is I think actually the American approach to food. Amen. But walking in step with the spirit and it's both.
And I think so much of the Christian life is both, and, and that's hard for us to even talk about. I, I, that's what I see when I look at scripture for some sort of true north when it comes to my own relationship with food.
Tony: Hey guys, just PAing this conversation with Erin to remind you to check out the Spirit and Truth website.
Spirit and Truth is a 5 0 1 C three. Nonprofit designed to help walk alongside the local church. We want to help churches, church leaders, and communities grow in their faith. If you're thinking about an end of the year, gift, spirit and truth, would love, love, love to get your support to learn [00:20:00] more. Get connected and to sign up for next year's Spirit and Truth Conference.
Go to Spirit and truth.life Spirit, a and d truth.life. Now let's finish up this conversation with Aaron Davis. Why do you think that the, the North American Church, and this is a big question that's really unfair to ask, so I know that going in. Okay. , why do you think that the North American Church struggles so much with talking about this topic?
Like I, I, I have, I have been a pastor in the local church for over a decade, and I think if I've preached on food twice that that might be right's. Crazy. 10 years.
Erin: That's a, since everyone in your church eats every.
Tony: every day. And, and, and I wrestle with my own you know, relationship with food as a comfort mechanism.
Mm-hmm. and, and I, I know that there's some God stuff there that I've, I'm dealing with and continue to [00:21:00] deal with and, you know, and, and, You know, repent and when I need to repent and I, you know, so well, I, I don't know. Why do you think the church struggles with it so
Erin: much? Okay, I'm gonna go for the jugular here.
Do it. I think it boils down to idolatry, which we're not the first people group to have that. There's a lot about food I idols in scripture, but I'll pull a really specific idea out . People might just click out of this podcast as I say this, but I'm, I'm gonna go for it. Several years ago I started to pay attention to how we talk about.
And it's like, we need coffee to start our day. Sure. We have all these like kitchy shirts and t-shirts, like, but first coffee. And like we have this idea of like, motherhood without coffee is impossible. We can't get through our day without it. And I get, I get it. I, I like coffee. I've experienced the benefits of caffeine.
But anytime we, there's something, anything that we feel like we have to have to [00:22:00] thrive and it's not the Lord, his spirit, his word in his church, something to me goes, Ugh, we have a problem. And it's not just coffee. It's any number of things. I mean, we build so much of the infrastructure of our social lives is built around food.
And I wouldn't throw that baby out with the bathwater. I actually think that's by design. When we look at scripture. But do we know how to have relationships away apart from food? Do we know how to love our neighbor apart from food? Do, if somebody tries, suggest to us that food might be an area where the Lord might want to invade and change our thinking, how strongly do we resist that?
Two stories come to mind. One, I was in my women's Bible study group that I've been in for years. Dear friends, I could vouch for their personal walks with the Lord. They love him, they wanna serve him. And I said, Hey, have you guys. Thought about fasting and one of my friends stood up and like almost balled her fists and said, I don't wanna talk about that.
And I was like, Oh, okay, we can talk about something else. But it's that raw [00:23:00] nerve I was talking about. And then my own pastor, who I adore, who is so faithful to the word is pastor, our church for decades, I said, Hey, Pastor Tim, would you ever consider preaching on fasting? He said, No. And I was, Why that's his personality at, He said, Because I don't fast and I'm not gonna call the flock to do something that I don't do.
So there's probably a lot of wise, but there is this kind of hard attitude of like, don't mess with my food. This is an area where I want to indulge. This is an area where I deserve, This is an area where I want to be in control. And if we were to assign those attitudes to something else, we'd recognize 'em for what they are, which is idol.
but I don't know. Something about food. It's hard to, hard to break free from those ideas.
Tony: Yeah. I It's like somewhere along the way it just became the coping mechanism. That's okay. You're right. You know, like, hey, if I'm having a bad day, I can do in, in some [00:24:00] Christian circles, you can do box wine. Yep. Or in some Christian circles you can do aleva Oreos.
And both of those options are. not exactly what I think God wants for us. Right, right. And then of, you know, so how, how do we begin to, how do we begin to write this ship on this relationship? Like if, if you're, if you're really, you know, discipling someone and you're pouring into their life and you, you know, they finally let you into this food, part of who they.
How, how do we begin to shift our thinking around it? Now, I, I fast and I really enjoy fasting as a spiritual practice. Yep. But when I feast I don't, It's not even a feast, It's not even an appropriate term for feast. I just eat too much. Yep. Like I, I know that I use food as a coping mechanism. Talk to somebody like me, for example.
I'm just gonna turn this into my therapy session here, and I hope you're okay. Yeah, I'm good. How do I, how do I fix my broken relationship with food? And I know where it comes from. I can name the date and time I have a therapist. We've talked [00:25:00] about it, but it's really hard. It's really hard for me to, like, I, I try to ask the Lord to take it and I, I, I believe he wants to, but I don't then change my practices.
Yeah. So what are your thoughts?
Erin: Well, you're ahead of the game there and just even recognizing something is off in that area, it is so normalized and for me, I got so sick of that chase for a long time. I thought, this is just how it is. I'm just always gonna have these complex emotions surrounding surrounding food, which.
Primarily I love food. I mean, I'm, I'm a foodie. We joked last night, we got home from soccer practice and my boys and my husband were like, Whatever, we'll make peanut butter and jellies. Well, I grill myself a chicken breast with some blistered tomatoes and some zoic production, and my husband's like, You're hilarious.
He's like, We don't eat pizza bites every night. And you're like, you know, making these master chef meals. So I, I, I love. And I just thought I was always gonna feel both, You know, I was always gonna love food [00:26:00] and feel ashamed and always gonna love food, and be telling myself I was gonna start again on Monday.
I don't know, I hit 40 and I just got sick of it. I just thought, I'm not gonna do this for the rest of my life. I, I wanna find the middle. I just cannot get on board with the idea that God would create me with the need for. That he would then give me food and then he would then, then I would be in this battle every day for the rest of my life.
And so I guess the first question would be like, do you believe that God can bring freedom to this area of your life? I think most people would have to honestly say no. And then there's nowhere else for us to start except for going to learn, saying, Okay, you know, Scripture says that a man is a slave to a whatever has mastered.
And that's open ended for a reason. Cause it could be food, it could be video games, it could be porn, it could be alcohol, it could be meth, it could be man's applause. I mean, it could be all number of things. So the first thing [00:27:00] we say is, God, I, I need freedom and I don't know how to get there. The second step I would say to take is to start in the gospels.
Isn't that true For so many things and see what Jesus did and model it. We are tiny Christ. We are at a Bear's image. So just start with that. And he had, he had a, I think a very human relationship with food. We see him eating a lot. We see him fasting. We see him using food as a means to celebrate. So we can't throw that out as bad.
We have to find a way. Sanctify it. So just model what Jesus did and start there. And then what I did was I, and I've done this with so many things in my life, it's a long list. I, I say to Lord, I, I don't have right thinking about this, and I know I don't. I can recognize that. Yeah. So show me your truth in the whole of your word.
And man, you wanna, you wanna ask that question to the Lord with. It, it starts in Genesis with the, the fruit that [00:28:00] Adam and Eve reached towards that they weren't supposed to. Then it, it takes us all the way to Revelation, the marriage, supper of the lamb when people from every tongue, tribe, and nation.
We'll gather at a table. I, I think a literal table. I don't think it's like a spirit table floating in the clouds. Any real food. That's how the can of scripture comes to an end. And everything in between. The Israelites griping about leaks and garlic, Jesus' first miracles the last supper. Jesus calling himself the bread of life and living water.
If you ask God to show you his perspective on food and the whole of scripture, that's gonna keep you in the word for years cuz there's so much.
Tony: I, I, as you were talking, I was thinking of like three or four other stories, right? The, the first miracle, the wedding candle, you know? Yeah. Water to wine. That's, Yeah.
That's a huge feast, right? Like in the, you know, just there's so much there and the, Yeah. Ooh, that's good. The
Erin: disciples walking along the field and they picked up ahead of grain and they ate it, and the Pharisees were waiting to [00:29:00] point fingers at him and Jesus had something to say there about fasting. You know, I mean, we could go on and on.
There's so much about food in. .
Tony: So I'm, I'm always curious about kind of revolution while in the writing process. What did you learn about God as you were writing this resource?
Erin: Mm, this is gonna sound so elementary, but it was revolutionary to me. Maybe it'll be revolutionary to somebody else, which is that I am not a disembodied.
And I had, There's a little teaching of Paul where he says, Well, physical exercises of some value, but spiritual exercises of greater value. That's the errand translation. And I totally misinterpreted that for my whole walk with the Lord. I took that tome that if I have to choose between taking care of my body and taking care of my spirit, I should always take care of my spirit and that it was an unspiritual thing to take care of my body.
Well, let me tell you where that thinking land. It landed me in the cardiologist office at the [00:30:00] age of 42. Wow. With a heart that was near heart failure. My, with kidneys that were near renal failure because I had just not stewarded my body well. And that was not a fun health crisis to be in. And I ended up in a lot of doctor's offices.
All of them wanted to talk to me about food. Now they talked about other things, salt intake, which I think is food stress management, which was another area I needed to learn a lot. . But as I started to get a handle on my own relationship with food and my body started to recover, so did my spirit. And that time when I Wow was so sick, reading my Bible was so hard.
Going to church was so hard. Demonstrating the fruits of the spirit was so hard cuz I was sick, I didn't feel good. And so I've learned that I only have one body. God designed it that way. And that it is in the stewarding of my body that I steward everything else God has given me. I parent from a body.[00:31:00]
I'm married to Jason from a body. I teach women the Bible, from a body. I write from a body. And so as I was trying to understand food and then I was in that writing process, when I crashed and burned, I realized like, I, I'm supposed to steward this body. And so if you were to see my to-do list on my desk, just across the room here, it's three things on the top of it.
Every week, love Jesus. Everything else is secondary. Make your home in nursery for heaven and take care of your body. You only get one. And that's been, I mean, it's been huge in my life and I feel like the Lord is sending me into. , a season of greater ministry and of greater serving that I could not go into if I didn't get control of just the body stuff, the eating and the exercising and the blood pressure and all that stuff.
Tony: I think that's really good. Do, do you have any spiritual disciplines or physical disciplines [00:32:00] that you wanna share that you're like, Hey, if, if you're not sure where to start, this is a place where I started. You might start at two.
Erin: I started January one this year, so not that long. I, I crashed and burned in the fall of 2021 and just chalked it up to Covid.
I, I will say, I, I think we are, our bodies are now registering the truth of how we got through covid and all is not well and our bodies. But I crashed and burned in the fall of 2021 and just thought, Oh, man, I don't, I don't know how I could possibly turn this around. I'm too far gone. I don't know. January one came around.
I think this is that rhythms thing again. God builds in fresh starts. Mm. And I just decided I'm gonna fight. I have four sons. I'm the only mama they're ever gonna have, and I, I have to figure this out. And so I said to the Lord, Help me. I don't know how to do this. I've doing, been doing it poorly so long.
And so I started walking. And when I first started walking, I could walk for about 10 minute. [00:33:00] And that was all I wanted to do. I probably could have walked further and I walked and I prayed. I could have listened to music. There would've been nothing wrong with that. I could have put on a great podcast such as Euro, and there would've been nothing wrong with that.
But I just walked and prayed and said, I'm sick. I need help. I need you to help me. I, you know, for 10 minutes. And he is so good. You take one step of obedience, you. One step of reaching towards him. You take one step of being, wanting to be a whole person, and he rushes toward you. So, you know, I, I did the rest of it the way anybody does it.
I, I now walk about two miles a day. I do 30 minutes of cardio a day. I my food actually feels under control and has felt under control for months. So it's not a, it's not a whim. It's not a. And you know, the formula really is the same exercise. And eat things that are good for you. Eat things that are bad for you in moderation.
Drink water. That's, that's kind of it. But even that can [00:34:00] be really hard to start. So invite Jesus into that. I would've previously thought that was like, God didn't care if I walked. He, I was supposed to be doing something more important with my day. I don't think that anymore. I, I think God very much is honored by me.
I'm gonna steward this body well for as long as I'm in it, and help me to do that.
Tony: As this book has existed in the wilderness now for a little bit what is, what are some of the things that you're hearing from God or from people as it, as it touches the hands of many
Erin: hmm. People are fascinated by the idea of fasting, which has surprised me.
It shouldn. . But what most people say is, I don't know anything about fasting, or I don't hear much about fasting. Yeah, I think I can diagnose the cause of that. There is a passage in scripture where Jesus himself said, When you fast, which he says frequently so as if it's a foregone conclusion, but he says, When you fast, don't be like the Pharisees and make [00:35:00] yourself look hungry and sick and draw attention to yourself.
But Jesus says, Go in your closet and close the door. And I think we've taken that to mean we're never supposed to tell anybody when we're fast. And since nobody is talking about fasting, we don't have a model for it. We think we're not supposed to talk about it. We're not fasting. So I'd love to debunk that.
Which is, I don't think that's the spirit of what Jesus was talking about. Fasting is about turning down the volume on the flesh. Yeah. And turning up the volume on the spirit. So those Pharisees who fast and then draw attention to themselves, they're turning the wrong knob, so to speak. And he was just, it's Jesus.
Is always primarily concerned with our heart. So there's a lot of that. A lot of like, Tell us about fasting. What is fasting? Are we supposed to fast? Does everybody have to fast? Lots of practical questions about fasting. And then lots of admissions. Like your own, like my own, which is like we, we know, we know this is an area that [00:36:00] we need the Holy Spirit to.
We need to learn a level of surrender. We feel a yo-yo we, we feel that something is off, but we don't know how to turn it around. So you and I have a common experience, but I don't think it has to be a forever experience. People I do think want some freedom. Women, especially I, I can't speak for men, but women carry a lot of shame when it comes to their relationship with food.
you can read the Bible for 10 minutes and know that shame isn't God's plan for your life. He came to take that shame off of you. He bore our shame so that we wouldn't have to carry it. Mm. But women, they don't know how to get free.
Tony: I think a lot of guys struggle with it, but are afraid to even talk about it.
Yeah. Because we're a ashamed of our, our shame. Yeah. I guess that's, That sounds right. Yeah. A lot of, lot of good stuff there. Okay. I have one more question for you, but before I ask it, I [00:37:00] know that my podcast family's gonna wanna connect with you all over the innerwebs. Where's the best place to learn all things?
Aaron Davis. And so they can pre-order book 17 when that comes out. Oh,
Erin: I would love for them to find me on the innerwebs. It makes my heart happy to know there's real people on the other side of these screens that were on. So track me down and find me. I have a podcast called The Deep Well that's a teaching podcast.
There's a actually a season coming out on fasting and feasting this fall. So if you feel. And I'd love to talk more about this here, Aaron, talk more about this. That's where I direct you the deep. Well aaron davis.org is probably the best place to find me. Other than that, you'll see pictures of my four boys there, so little mom bragging.
You'll see why I adore them so much and my books are there and other places to track me down. Sure. Are there.
Tony: That's great. I love it. Okay. Last question. I always love to ask people. It's an advice question. Mm-hmm. , where I ask you to go back and give yourself one piece of advice, except I get to name the season of your life.
Okay? Yeah. It's incredibly unfair, . So[00:38:00] I wanna take you back to the very first page of your very first book. Mm. You're getting ready to write it. You're sitting down. And you, if you were gonna pull up a chair in front of that young woman, sit, need a me with her, hold her hands and look her in the eyes, what's the one piece of advice that you're gonna give her?
Erin: I would tell her to enjoy her inadequacy immensely. That first book there's a Shane in Shane song that I love called Embracing Accusation, where they talk about the voice of the. Yeah. And he's saying all these things, you know, that were lost and gone astray, that were broken. And then the, the last verse of that is, he's right and he is, I mean, there's nothing that the enemy can come at me with.
That isn't true. Probably. Yeah. I do deserve to be cast. I do not deserve to be a child of God. I have no gift in this in my own I [00:39:00] cannot write a book. So if the, if the message is you can't do this, that is so right. I cannot and I've just learned that's part of the process. It's the uncomfortable part of the process, but I would not trade it because it is what knocks me down to where I need to.
I probably have some just like human gifts. Like I probably could write a decent book without the Holy Spirit. But those aren't the books I wanna write, so just, I would just look in the eye and say, Do it scared. Do it knowing you're gonna mess it up, Do it vulnerable. That's all part of the ride.
And the Lord has done so much in my. through that continual process of feeling like, I have something to say, but I don't wanna say it, I don't know how to say it. I, I'd write all those books again even if no one else ever read 'em. Cuz one of my teaching mantras is whoever's doing the work, is doing the learning.
And in doing the work of creating those [00:40:00] books, I've learned so much about who God is.
Tony: Wow. That's be. Aaron, thank you so much for being so generous with your time today. Thank you for your heart and waiting into difficult waters for a lot of us. So on behalf of of my podcast family, I just wanna say thank you and thanks for being such a great guest.
Erin: Mm. I've loved it. I hope everyone listening tastes and see that the Lord is.
Tony: I told you guys what an incredible conversation with Aaron. I just think it's an important one to have. I don't know that I left there with more clear answers, but I do know that this is one area of my life that I really have to surrender over to God.
So thank you for being a part of this conversation, this dialogue. Thank you for being a part of our reclamation family. And hey, if there's anything I can do to help you, please connect with me. Instagram's the best way for me. At T W M I L T T W M I L. And remember guys, if you want to follow Jesus, you must be willing to move.[00:41:00]
