I realized today just how many choices I have every day when it comes to food. If I'm hungry, I have a plethora of options from cereal to meat, fruit and vegetables to ice cream and crackers. If I'm hungry, I just dig through piles of foodstuff until I find something that sounds good...if I don't find something that sounds good, then I can go to the grocery store and buy it. And don't think twice about it. Even worse, how many times have I opened the fridge or freezer and sighed over the fact that there's "nothing to eat"? What an ungrateful attitude!
Working within the parameters of just 7 foods has made me very aware of how blessed I am. I don't have to eat the same (one) food every day. I don't have to go to bed with a growling stomach. I don't have to watch my children slowly and painfully die of starvation. How is it that I happened to be born into the life I have instead of one of suffering and starvation? Maybe God puts us where we are because we are supposed to do something about those who are hungry. I live near Tampa, FL and I would bet money that there are hungry people in my town tonight. I don't know who they are but that doesn't excuse me from becoming educated and proactive about helping them.
Maybe some of the money we spend so thoughtlessly on snacks and food just to fill our cupboards is supposed to be shared. Which I'm willing to do, but here's my dilemma...I don't want to give money to organizations that spend most of it on administrative costs so little if any of it actually gets to the people who so desperately need it. So maybe the hunger issue needs to be addressed first at a local level or through personal contacts in other countries, where it's actually going to do some good. I don't know. But I do know that I can't just go back to being the thoughtless consumer that I have been.
Finally, I want to share one of the verses from my Bible study this morning. Now I should note that this was not some random reading, this is a Bible study that I have been a part of since last fall and we have only two weeks left, so there is no way I could have planned it out to fall on this week. "Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective or unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is near-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins." 2 Peter 1:5-9 Then I read the footnotes and found that: Faith is the root of our Christian life, goodness is virtue in action, self-control is a result of virtue, godliness is genuine reverence toward God that governs the attitude in every aspect of life, brotherly kindness is warmhearted affection towards all and love is the selfless attitude that leads one to sacrifice for the good of others.
I feel like this fast is almost a parallel to this verse for me: I'm taking a step of faith to do something totally new and out of my comfort zone so I can become more aware of God's goodness. I am reading and talking and gaining knowledge about food and hunger and what my role should be in the whole thing. This fast is taking both self-control and perseverance. In the process, I am gaining more reverence towards God (godliness) who is changing my attitude and how I look at everything. It makes me desire to show brotherly affection and love toward others who haven't been blessed in the same ways I have been. There is no way to sort all this out without seeking God's will, but to ignore or forget what I'm learning this week would only show how easily I forget how much God has done for me.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have read these verses the same way prior to this week. So, there you go...just one more unexpected outcome of this little experiment.
No comments:
Post a Comment