My Spiritual Journey

It's Tuesday evening August 10, 2010; the night before Ramadan begins. Each year, muslims spend the ninth month of the Islamic calendar observing a community wide fast. The annual fast of Ramadan is considered one of the five 'pillars' of Islam. Muslims who are physically able are required to fast each day of the entire month from sunrise to sunset. The evenings are spent enjoying family and community meals, engaging in prayer, spirtual reflection and reading from the Qu'ran.Muslims around the world anticipate the arrival of the holiest month of the year. During Ramadan as well as other times during the year, muslims are encouraged to read and reflect on God's guiduance.

This year the Ramadan begins tomorrow August 11, 2010 and ends on Sept. 9, 2010. I am a christian with a few muslim friends. I have decided to do the Ramadan with them this year. Because I am not a muslim and I don't know all the rules and regulations, I will be doing my a bit differently. I will be fasting, praying five times a day and reading the bible on a daily bases.
My goal is to go through the experience to see the effects and impact it will have on my life. It's this going to affect my life positively or negetively? How much will my relationship with God improve, will it bring me closer to God or not? It's all about having a closer relationship with the almighty. Due to my busy life, some times I don't do what I am suppose to do as a christain. I don't pray, as often as I am suppose to, neither do I read my bible. We get so busy sometimes that we forget about our relationship with God; I don't know about you but I know I do.

I wonder if our christain walk will be so much easy if we had strict rules that are enforced, that we all follow like the muslims do; praying and reading our bible a certain number of times a day for example. The challenge for me is, will I be able to follow through with this? Could christians like me who struggle with praying, reading the bible and doing all the things we are suppose to do be able to jaggle it all and not forget about their God? I guess we will see. I am still going to have a busy life, actually I am starting a new job on Monday August 16. Some people think I am crazy to be trying this at this time; they think the timing is not good for me. My questions to them is, when will it be the right time? Do we have to have a right time or a time that is good for us before we work on our relationship with God? We are suppose to seek him in good times as well as bad times; so I guess this is it. I will be sharing my thoughts, feelings and the bible verses I read with you on a daily bases. I don't know how this is all going to go, but I know I can do all things through christ; so I am going to go for it and start this journey.