Good Food

“’My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,’ Jesus told them.” (John 4:34)

            Food is a life necessity.  It sustains us by providing fuel for energy.  It is one of the main motivations and objectives for the work we do, and it’s a cycle.  We work for food, and we eat food so we can have the energy to work, though the ultimate objective is to sustain life.  We cannot live very long without food, and after prolonged periods without it we will do almost anything to get it.  The necessity of food nearly approaches something of a human passion.

            The disciples of Jesus went into a nearby Samaritan village to buy some food while Jesus, weary from the journey, hung back and sat down by a well.  But that was not the only reason He remained behind.  Someone would be coming to the well soon, and Jesus had a divine appointment with her, though she was not aware of it at the time.

            Sometime later the disciples returned to the well with food in hand and urged Jesus to eat something.  Soon He would, but He pointed out to them that there is more than one kind of food.  There is also a “spiritual” food that is every bit as necessary as physical food.  This food is missions related – “doing the will of Him who sent Me.”

            Missions is thus the spiritual food we need, a passion for reaching the lost, for bringing them to the Lord.  Like food, missions sustains and energizes us, so that we can carry out the work of missions, with life lived well and finished well as the ultimate objective.

Lord, We thank You for the physical food that sustains us daily and for the spiritual food that energizes us daily to share You with a world that does not know You.  Amen.”