Soul Food
I just got back from a trip overseas to present at a conference. I missed the beginning of the new term, so I feel kind of ill-prepared for all my schoolyear-based responsibilities, and I'm a month behind on my dissertation writing goals, because I've been applying to jobs for next year. Plus I'm jetlagged.
So on Saturday afternoon, the world was overwhelming, spinning out of control, and it was all I could do to just hold on. I needed to get groceries, but my phone was nearly dead, so I decided to plug it in and tackle one of the other pressing things on my to do list: preparing the Bible study for Bible quizzing practice the next morning. So I looked up the schedule, saw what material we would be covering (1 Corinthians 2&3), and started reading. (Read what I was thinking about when I was reading it here.)
And the world stilled.
Psalm 1 says that the one who meditates on the Word of the Lord is like a tree planted by streams of water, and I think that is an apt description of what it felt like. I was transplanted to a place of peace.
It has never been the case that, when I was in emotional distress, if I opened my Bible and read it, it did not calm me down.
Why did it bring me such peace? I think because that passage was right what I needed to hear right then.
It wasn't news; I had read it before. I'd even memorized portions of it!
And I didn't know it was what I needed until I was reading it.
But it spoke right to me, where I was mentally, to the worries I had been harbouring that I had not even fully acknowledged.
It was kind of like that feeling when you're craving some food, some nutrient, that you don't have available. So you're trying to fill that craving with other food, but your body is just not having it. Then you finally eat the thing you've wanted and it just feels right. You finally feel properly satiated.
"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
Jesus wasn't always an itinerant rabbi (before that, He was a carpenter). Before He first started traveling and preaching, He spent forty days fasting in the desert. At the end of that period, the devil came to Him and began to tempt Him. He said, why don't you turn these stones into bread?
Jesus answered, quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4).
My spiritual needs are as important as my physical needs. I would never go days on end forgetting to eat, so why do I find it so easy to forget to nourish myself spiritually? And then on Sunday I try to gorge myself--because I am so hungry for it--but I am not ready for it. It's like trying to feed a turkey dinner to someone malnourished , and they throw it up because their body can't digest it anymore.
I would not dream on trying to survive off of the minimal amount of food food--so why do I do the same with spiritual food? Why am I starving myself?
"How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119: 103)
So on Saturday afternoon, the world was overwhelming, spinning out of control, and it was all I could do to just hold on. I needed to get groceries, but my phone was nearly dead, so I decided to plug it in and tackle one of the other pressing things on my to do list: preparing the Bible study for Bible quizzing practice the next morning. So I looked up the schedule, saw what material we would be covering (1 Corinthians 2&3), and started reading. (Read what I was thinking about when I was reading it here.)
And the world stilled.
Psalm 1 says that the one who meditates on the Word of the Lord is like a tree planted by streams of water, and I think that is an apt description of what it felt like. I was transplanted to a place of peace.
It has never been the case that, when I was in emotional distress, if I opened my Bible and read it, it did not calm me down.
Why did it bring me such peace? I think because that passage was right what I needed to hear right then.
It wasn't news; I had read it before. I'd even memorized portions of it!
And I didn't know it was what I needed until I was reading it.
But it spoke right to me, where I was mentally, to the worries I had been harbouring that I had not even fully acknowledged.
It was kind of like that feeling when you're craving some food, some nutrient, that you don't have available. So you're trying to fill that craving with other food, but your body is just not having it. Then you finally eat the thing you've wanted and it just feels right. You finally feel properly satiated.
"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
Jesus wasn't always an itinerant rabbi (before that, He was a carpenter). Before He first started traveling and preaching, He spent forty days fasting in the desert. At the end of that period, the devil came to Him and began to tempt Him. He said, why don't you turn these stones into bread?
Jesus answered, quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4).
My spiritual needs are as important as my physical needs. I would never go days on end forgetting to eat, so why do I find it so easy to forget to nourish myself spiritually? And then on Sunday I try to gorge myself--because I am so hungry for it--but I am not ready for it. It's like trying to feed a turkey dinner to someone malnourished , and they throw it up because their body can't digest it anymore.
I would not dream on trying to survive off of the minimal amount of food food--so why do I do the same with spiritual food? Why am I starving myself?
"How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119: 103)
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