Mindful Monday #2: Come to the Feast!

I am a huge fan of food; I very rarely miss a meal. I even enjoy eating between meals and snacking in between snacks. And the stuff that I shovel into my mouth is not always the stuff that’s good for me. I’m motivated to eat, but not really motivated to make something to eat. “Convenience is king” had kind of been my unspoken mantra. I want to eat when I want to eat, not after spending an hour preparing a meal. If you cook it, I’ll eat it (well, most things anyway!).

I wish I could tell you that I am occupied with things much more important, but Revelation 21:8 tells me that liars go to hell! I can’t seem to time things very well so that they are done at the same time. But the bottom line is that when it comes to cooking, I’m lazy. I’ll throw a frozen pizza or some chicken nuggets with tater tots on my Pizzazz for 20 minutes because that is quick. But making and executing a plan for barbequed pork chops with mashed potatoes and green beans with peach cobbler for dessert will make my flesh scream for the lazy boy and the television remote. However, my body is better served by the better food.

We Christians are a lot like that when it comes to our spiritual food too. We’re desperately lazy. So lazy, in fact, that we only eat once or twice a week and we require spoon-feeding or, perhaps, bottle-feeding. We may snack on the Verse of the Day on YouVersion, but even then we don’t take the time to properly chew and digest it.

It is true that pastors are there to help us grow, but it’s not primarily their job to feed us; that’s our job. We are supposed to search out our own spiritual food while they provide us with direction. We’re supposed to be studying the Word for ourselves! If we are only spoon-fed by our pastors at church we will fail to thrive; there will be no growth. Our spiritual growth is dependant upon us. We need to read the Word. We need to meditate upon the Word. We need to pray. We need to serve others.

Getting by on heavily processed foods is not living; it’s surviving. Getting by with just the pastor’s teaching is not living either. God’s word contains an unimaginable feast for those willing to come to the table, knife and fork in hand, and eat.