My Nazarite Vow

I want to hear from God. I am looking for some direction in my life and in the shepherding of a precious community of Christ-followers. I have come to the conclusion that taking the Nazarite vow would put me in a place spiritually to be able to better hear from God. It is a choice I am making to seek God out, not for what he can do for me, but so I can do for him.

My favorite thing about the Nazarite vow is that the person involved is supposed to fulfill their vow while they continue with their day to day life. It would be so much easier to run away for a year and live in a cave (maybe a cave with a tv in it) than to separate yourself to God within the context of daily life.

The challenge with making a Nazarite vow in 2010 is finding ways to honor the spirit of the vow that might be more relevant to the times without slaughtering the original concept. For instance, I could buy a couple sheep and burn them in my back yard, but it wouldn't carry the same meaning as it did for a Jew thousasnds of years ago. I want to find terms to apply to my vow that reflect the original, but have meaning to me.

I will make this vow for a period of six months (July 15, 2010 to January 15, 2011). I have come up with five terms for my vow:

1) I will not shave or cut my hair for the duration of the vow. While this doesn't have the same societal ramifications it did back then, I think it will serve as a good daily reminder to me of what I am doing. Personally, it will also help me devote myself to letting go of my external presentations in favor of seeking God's approval.

2) I will give up my wardrobe. One of my first thoughts at the beginning of each day is how I will dress--how I will present/project myself to the world around me. In order to change that focus for a time, I am going to pack up all but three changes of clothing. This may not be such a big deal to some people (I have a homeless friend that probably only has two or three changes of clothes and he has to wear them all all the time), but I see it as a way for me to let go of my outward projections, my contrived identities designed to impress people or manipulate their impressions of me.

3) I will not use any credit or atm cards whatsoever. In my life, credit cards have come to represent easy acquisition of posessions and convenient ways to get what I want even if it is outside my means. I want to let go of that in favor of lookiing to God for his provision for a time. As a point of honesty, I will still have to use my bank account to pay bills online, etc. but I will not carry the cards in my wallet or use them to make purchases.

4)I will not use my personal computer at home. I'm not sure that I spend exorbinant amounts of time online, but I want to separate myself in some respects from the world. One way for me to do that would be to cut myself off from the daily news, surfing, etc. that I do online. I will still use this netbook at the coffee shop to maintain communication and to post on this blog, but will refrain from using the computer at home.

5) I am going to sell all my unnecessary automotive tools and bicycle parts. This may only be meaningful to me or someone who knows me intimately, but for a long time, I have had my identity and sense of self-worth wrapped up in these tools. I tend to collect and hoard them and they have become part of the projected identity I worke so hard to establish for the world around me and I want to sacrifice it to be able to better explore the identity God has for me. At the end of this process, whatever money I make will be given to my friend, Jason who's wife was killed in a car accident last year and who's kids were severely injured.

Concluding sacrifices:

Upon conclusion of the six months, I will make certain sacrifices to honor God and the vow I made to him:

1) I will shave my head and my face.

2) I will sign over the pink slip of my 1991 Suburban to my friend including the winch (this may seem silly, but is an incredible sacrifice for me).

3) I will give the proceeds from my tool sales to Jason Hotchkiss.