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.”

Simplify

“Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I do not get involved with things too great or too difficult for me. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself like a little weaned child with its mother; I am like a little child.” (Psalm 131:1-2 CSB)

There is something to be said for simplicity. Life can become a convoluted maze at times, full of complexity, so that the simplification of life can have a huge appeal. There are many who might say, “I would love to simplify my life, but I’m not sure if I can, and I’m not sure how.”

The first step toward simplifying life is to get the right orientation. You first have to confirm where you are in your relationship with God. The last verse of Psalm 131 reads, “Put your hope in the Lord, both now and forever.” A jumbled life begins to take on a clearer order when Jesus is Lord of that life. As Paul said in Colossians, in Christ all things “hang together.” He actually used the analogy of a key ring with all the keys hanging on it in order. Sailors once used the North Star to get their bearings in order to navigate difficult journeys, and many still do. So, when we orient our lives to the constancy of the Lordship of Christ, the pieces of life begin to come together, and we find life a little easier to navigate.

The next step toward simplifying a life is to realize that there are some complexities in life that are beyond your comprehension and your ability to manage. We come to this realization when we understand and accept our limitations. That does not mean that we avoid life’s difficulties altogether or bury our head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. We still must face them. But with regard to some of life’s complexities, our limitations are those of a child. Sometimes we are not really capable of understanding. Some things only God can know or understand, such as “why?” Simplification gets stronger when like a child we trust God.

Father, Today may our lives be fully oriented toward You and Your sovereignty, and may we come to a deeper understanding of our human limitations and trust You in those complex situations that are beyond our capabilities. Amen.