Jesus
said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever
comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be
thirsty.” --John 6: 35
Have you ever watched
the show, “Man vs. Food?” I have to
confess that even though the premise of the show seems a little bizarre, it is .
. . rather addictive! Adam Richman is
the star of the show; he is the “Man” of the title, who sets himself in
competition against “Food.” Richman
travels around the country to various restaurants, attempting to conquer food
challenges: everything from consuming a mammoth
ice cream sundae in New England, to a five-pound steak in Texas, to Southern
wings so hot, he had to wear rubber gloves to pick them up!
We are strangely
mesmerized by seeing how much food this man can cram into his body. Psychologists say that many of us eat too
much because we are trying to make up for the lack of other things in our
lives. Our lives lack meaning and
purpose, so we stop by the drive-through window to pick up a Big Mac. Our lives lack love and friendship, so we
splurge on a rich chocolate shake.
Our obsession with
over-feeding ourselves has become so problematic, the mayor of New York
actually proposed a ban on super-size soft drinks! Regardless of whether or not you agree with that,
what does that say about us as a society, that we consume so much junk, a city
is enacting a law to try to save us from ourselves?
What we need is to
fill our lives with the bread of life. In
this passage from John’s gospel, Jesus told the people that he is the bread of
life. The people began to complain,
saying, how can he say that he is the bread that has come down from
heaven? We know this guy! He’s Joseph’s son! We know his parents! What does he think he has that we need?
They did not see that
Jesus is God himself, and that he was offering them everything they could
possibly need! Like the people Jesus was
talking to that day, we—even those of us who are Christians—sometimes act like
we don’t need him.
How do we treat
Jesus? Do we view him as essential to
life? Do we recognize him as God
himself, the source of all life and the ground of our being? Or do we treat him as an extra, a side dish, a
condiment that we can take or leave? Do
we fill our lives with other things, existing on a diet of fast food for the
mind as well as the body--mindless television programs, You Tube, Facebook--so
that we have no room for what really matters?
Are we malnourished, starving for what we really need, because we have
consumed so much of what we don’t?
If we fill our lives
with “empty calories,” with things that don’t really matter, we will not be
satisfied. But if we fill our lives with
the bread of life, we will find that we have the presence of God with us in a
way that is life-giving.
So how do we remedy
this? How do we change our diet so that
we are better nourished? We need to add the ingredient of prayer.
Sometimes we breathe
a whispered prayer as we rush through the day. There is nothing wrong with
that; we should be thinking of God and talking to God all day long. But our only prayer shouldn’t be a casual
comment to God in passing. Sometime we
don’t even realize what our prayer life is like, until it is reflected back to
us. Take the case of a woman who had
invited some people to dinner. At the
table, she turned to her six-year-old daughter and asked, “Would you like to
say the blessing?” “I wouldn’t know what
to say,” the little girl replied. “Just
say what you hear Mommy say,” the mother said.
So the little girl bowed her head and said, “Dear Lord, why on earth did
I invite all these people to dinner?”
Out of the mouths of
babes, as they say!
Too often we talk to
God only in passing, or we turn to him only when we need something from
him. Corrie Ten Boom calls that the
“spare tire” kind of prayer, turning to God only in case of emergency. But she
says that rather than seeing prayer as a spare tire, we should see prayer as a
steering wheel. Prayer should be the
guiding force of our lives each and every day.
What is your prayer
life like? Reflect back over the past
twenty-four hours. When did you stop to
pray—to really pray—to God? Were your
conversations with God “spare tire” prayers or “steering wheel” prayers? How much time was spent with God, compared to
the amount of time spent on everything else?
We sometimes think that we don’t have
time to pray. How can we stop to pray
when we are so busy?! There are mornings when I wake up and I’m
immediately inundated by thoughts of all that I have to do that day. Before my feet even hit the floor, the list
of things to do starts running through my mind.
It doesn’t seem like there could possibly be enough hours in the day to
accomplish all that I need to accomplish, and it is tempting to think, “I don’t
have time to pray today; I’ve got to get going!” Those are the mornings I know that I most
need to pause and spend time in prayer. Prayer is the
practice that puts everything else in perspective. When we start and end our days with God, we
are centered on the right things. We
acknowledge that whatever the day brings, we are not in it alone. Though we may face difficult situations, with
God, all things are possible.
If we spend time with God in prayer, if we fill our lives
with his presence, we will not have to chase after things that don’t
matter. We will not have to fill our
bodies with food that does not satisfy, because we will have satisfaction for
our souls.
In Matthew’s gospel Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” How will we hear God’s word to us without
spending time in prayer? We must spend
time with God: listening as well as talking, letting the Holy Spirit flow over
us and fill us, receiving the nourishment we need to live whole and healthy
lives. When prayer is one of the main ingredients in our spiritual
diet, we will be fed with all that we need for life. So let’s not fill our lives with things that
perish, but with the bread that came down from heaven, and we will have all
that we need to satisfy our souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment