That gut feeling

Last month I was hit with a great and surprising experience: I had an attack in my bowels that required major emergency surgery.  I was left without a portion of my lower intestine because it became twisted and began to hemorrhage.  It would have ended my life were it not removed.

During my recovery process I began in earnest to study bowels in the scripture.  I was taken aback by the great wealth of information that was available in very few passages of scripture.

I looked up the word bowels, both in scripture and in the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.  Here is a part of what I found:

Bowels are defined in several ways.  They are considered the interior of something or the seat of pity or kindness. Shakespeare defines them as offspring (which comes from scriptures numerous times).  Medically speaking it is called the part of the alimentary canal between the stomach and the anus.

The scriptures tell us some interesting information regarding bowels.  In 1 Kings 3:26 we read, Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it.  But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thing, but divide it.  Here we see the wise King Solomon witness the true love of a mother.

Job state in Job 30:27: My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

We get some additional information of the function of emotion in the bowels in Psalms 22:14: I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. Here we have an understanding of the emotions of our hearts felt throughout our bowels.

Isaiah teaches us again of the amazing power of the bowels in Isaiah 63:15: Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?  Certainly everyone has heard their stomach growl.

Lamentations teaches us in Lam. 1:20: Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turn within me…

I learned the bowels yearn, boil sound and are troubled.  Gold and silver cannot fill the bowels, they are filled and moved with compassion and with mercy; they can be full of charity.

God's bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Even the voice of the earth came from her bowels as she bemoaned the awful situation of the wickedness upon and within her. Paul greatly longs after the saints in the bowels of Jesus Christ.  Even the testimony of Ezekiel teaches us something about the word of God and the effect on the bowels.

Ezekiel 3:3
And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. In this spiritual experience, the food that was given to Ezekiel to eat was scripture, and it was sweet to him, just as Joseph Smith said the truth was delicious.

The bowels are filled with brain neurons.  The bowels send off 9 times as many signals to the body as does the brain.  Just imagine how many times you have that “gut feeling” and disregarded it. And think of all the things you feel to do, whether you believe it is initiated in your head or not.  The bowels are a source of inspiration, and certainly far more than we give credit.

Our bowels are a seat of indescribable power to us if we will allow them to be so.  On an emotional level, it requires honesty to one’s self to benefit from the messages the bowels are sending off. Physically it is nearly impossible to do anything without the use of your bowels and the muscles surrounding them.  Take my word for it.  You cannot even stand up straight nor walk without healthy bowels.

There were several connections to bowels and fasting that I wanted to share here, since I wonder if you are asking the question, “What does this have to do with the Law of the Fast?”

While during my recuperation, I could not eat solid foods.  For 2 days I was only on water.  After that, food was difficult for me to have any interest in and was not assimilated well for nearly a month.  So I learned about the ability of the gut to be able to discern many things, especially when there was no substance in it. I felt a yearning in me for nourishment, but I knew that it was not going to be something I could physically eat.  I was seeking for a higher level of nourishment that could satisfy me.

Several months ago I received a blessing that I would be more empathetic.  The part of my bowel that was removed had been flopping around all my life.  I never had the necessary ligature to hold it in place, and perhaps that would explain why I had vacillated in so many things throughout me life.  But since that part of my bowel is gone, I find that I am much more stable in my thought processes.  I find myself focusing on the needs of others is a more constant desire and process for me.  I am focused on them to a much greater degree.  Interesting for me. 

I have also noted how much more I feel after people that I see, and I see plenty of them.  I drive my car as a taxi in San Francisco nearly every day.  I see so many people in such dire circumstances, as well as hear the stories of many people whose lives are filled with pain; they are without Christ or God in the world.  Oh, I am so saddened for them.  Sometimes I can listen and encourage them towards the Savior.  Others I am left with my only other resource, all I can do is pray for them.

Through this process I came upon a scripture that moved me greatly.  In the JST John 4:31-34 it reads:

In the meantime his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 

But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know no of.

Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him meat to eat?

Jesus said unto them, “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work.”

Jesus was teaching us a profound truth.  He was fasting at this time.  Our meat, the food that we need in our lives to nourish us more than anything, is to do the will of the Father.

Could the act of fasting to relieve the bowels of the labor of digestion be to our greater benefit so that we could feel after our brethren and lift those with the feeble knees and the hands that hang down, or to help the widow and the orphan?  Could our bowels be speaking to us more than we recognize but because we have become so engrossed in the process of searching for the food of this earth instead of that of a better world be keeping us down when we want to ascend?

I find it most interesting that we learn such a great deal from such a little sentence.  Fasting is such a blessing to our bodies and our souls.  I am determined in a different was to understand the yearnings of my bowels.  I do not desire to have them boil, but to have them full of charity, to refresh my bowels in the Lord.

May I encourage you to find the time to study bowels and fasting in the same vein.  You will be greatly blessed.