Ten Days Without: Daring Adventures in Discomfort That Will Change Your World and You

Q&A with Daniel Day

Q. Daniel, this book started as an experiment you documented on your blog. Tell us about this experiment and what inspired you to do it.

A. One day while sitting on the floor of my living room, I was reading in Matthew and stumbled across the passage, For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

That passage inspired me to ask a very simple question: How can I make a difference in the world? That question led me to a crazy idea. What if I walked around without shoes, blogged about my experiences, and used the blog to mobilize people to fight poverty? What if I raised money and sent the money to buy shoes for kids that didn t have any? Would that make a difference in the world?

So I did it. My hypothesis was that making a difference in the world is as easy as going without something, and I set out to see if it was true or not. Ten Days Without was literally an experiment, an experiment that ended up changing my life. After Ten Days Without shoes, I went without furniture, legs, media, a coat, human touch, speech, and others. Each experiment led me to new revelations about myself, what it means to make a difference in the world, and ultimately what it means to live like Jesus.

Q. You call this experiment a rebellion against apathy. Why are so many teens and young adults apathetic, especially those who have grown up in the Christian culture?

A. I think apathy is a bi-product of being distracted. I think that if you asked a teenager if they cared about kids dying in Africa from lack of clean drinking water, they would say, yes. I think that if you asked them to text the word Water to donate $5, most of them would gladly give $5 of their parents money to help provide clean water for those in need. So the problem is not as simple as teenagers or young adults not caring about the bigger issues in the world. To me, the real root of modern apathy is found in the amount of time we stare at flickering screens every day. (According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, the average American teenager consumes 7:38 of media each day.)

Q. You invited others to join you on this experiment. Can you share a story or two from what others learned on their journey?

A. A woman named Vianca sent me this story. She lives in Nashville, and is the mother of four kids. Her oldest is five, a girl named Evria. On Vi s first day of going without shoes, Evria looked at her and said, Mommy, you re forgetting something! Vi said that when she explained to her daughter what she was doing, her five-year-old little girl offered to give away her shoes for the kids who needed them.

A teenager named Justin, went 10 Days Without Speech. In the middle of his experiment, he and a friend of his were bullied at school. But instead of lashing out, Justin was quiet. He told me later that he wanted so badly to tell the kid off, and yet he was quiet. I told him that I didn t think I would have been as brave as him.

Q. How can families and youth groups use the book?

A. There is nothing more powerful in our consumer culture than to go without. When families, youth groups, Christian schools, or the like embrace this idea they will learn some amazing things. I think the best place to start is to choose one experiment to try as a group. Maybe Ten Days Without Media would be the best place to start.

A youth group in Des Moines, Iowa did several of these experiments together. The youth pastor, Jason, actually designed each experiment to coincide with a special speaker who would come in and talk about whatever cause the youth group was fighting for. For example, during Ten Days Without Speech, Jason had a guy come in and talk about sex-trafficking. The money the group was raising was going to provide a voice for these girls. The speaker provided the why behind the group s cause, and Jason said the response to his talk was more powerful than ever before because of the experiment.

As far as families go, why not start with Ten Days Without Media? Turn off the TVs, laptops, cellphones, video game consoles, etc. I bet a lot of families will spend real, quality time together for the first time in years.

Q. How did this concept change you personally? What were you most surprised to learn about yourself?

A. I was really surprised to learn that I get in my own way. Making a difference in the world seems like such a big and daunting task, but it really begins with the people we come into contact with daily. And that s where I make my mistake. I always picture the people I need to help as over there meaning overseas. I forget that I have a homeless guy named John who lives on the street just a few miles away from my house. For the first time in my life, I don t just look at John and think, Boy, I would love to help him out. I take him out to eat, and we talk about life. Instead of letting me convince myself that I shouldn t interact with John, I just go for it. That has been the biggest change in me over the past two years.