Man shall not live on bread alone...

This is week 2 of the Read-a-long through "Seven" by Jen Hatmaker.  This week's topic of food: 

I once heard a story from my mother-in-law about a medical missions trip to Africa.  She told a heartbreaking story about a woman who's little boy was dying of malnutrition.  The medical team informed her that her son would live if she could only give him one egg to eat per week.  She teared up and told them that she could not afford even that small amount, even to keep her baby boy alive. 
     Last weekend, while at dinner at my in-laws house, a conversation was started about some movie that all of them had seen involving something of an apocalypse.  They were discussing something about what would happen if our food supply were damaged or possibly what would happen if our water supply were contaminated.  They talked about the possible need for starting a garden in the back yard, so they could be self sufficient or maybe storing up food and water.  My first instinct on hearing about this was fear, followed almost immediately by the thought to shut down this thought train.  I have a lot of things that I am deathly afraid of, most of them totally irrational, like fear of going spontaneously crazy and feeling the need to run out of a room screaming at any given time (which my wife assures me isn't going to happen.  But you never know).  The last thing that I need is to allow myself to become obsessed with a possible doomsday scenario.  Then I got to thinking about what this means about us as a society that we spend time thinking and planning what if scenarios for unlikely food shortages in one of the richest countries in the world.   There are parents and children all over the world that don't know when/if their next meal will come from.  They worry for how they will feed themselves tomorrow, which is a very real worry.  And we go through the mental exercise of worrying about what we would do if a meteor were to strike nearby, our food supply were poisoned or zombie apocalypse and other such nonsense.  We worried about storing up months/years of food and water in case the financial system collapsed in Y2K.   We are one of the richest countries in the world and we have lost touch with reality.  We worry and prepare for a lot of things and yet we take for granted the things that are truly important.  It reminds me of Jesus' parable of the rich fool.  When I think about possible future catastrophe, I wonder what would happen to the church in America if Christians were to face fierce persecution, what if the Bible were outlawed and we did not have access to God's written word?  We worry about hypothetical food shortages and yet God says "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."(Matthew 4:4)  How much Bible are we taking in?  How much of God's word are we storing up within ourselves?  I can live on much less food than I currently live on, but I starve myself from that which gives life.  Oh LORD, give me hunger pangs for your sustaining Word, let me feel the parched mouth of one who longs for your living water.  "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." (Psalm 42:1)  My heart longs to see my King Jesus, to feast with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb.  God help me!

Right now story

Today Danielle and I are starting a read-a-long through the book 7 by Jen Hatmaker.  This week we read the introduction and I can already tell that we are in for a serious heart beat down.  Marla Taviano is leading us in the study.  This week she encouraged us to give our "right now" story.  I am not really sure where to start with this.  Romans 8:29 has been the heartbeat of our lives recently, and I am really tired of God conforming me.  Don't get me wrong, I want to be conformed to the image of Christ, but I am really worn out from Him chipping away at my stone heart.  We are studying the book of Psalms as a church, and I find myself echoing David's frequent question of why the wicked prosper.  I work as a mechanic, and try my best to honor God through my work.  But I get paid on a sort of commission system, and if I am not working on a car, then I am not getting paid.  Well we are in the slow time now, and we are all working to get as many cars as we can to work on.  I find myself constantly keeping track of the other guys and finding little sneaky ways that guys are cheating the system to be "up" for their next car sooner.  I find myself crying out to God about the injustice of it all and crying to Him as if I really wanted true justice to reign in my life.  Meanwhile, God has provided abundantly for me through my job, and as Jen so eloquently points out in her book "this white dude is rich!"  We are thankful for what God has given us, and try to live modestly.  But when I look around the shop and compare my hours, I never compare myself with the guys that make less than me.  Oh, the sneakiness of my wicked heart, wretched man that I am!  I hope that through this read-a-long and the subsequent fasts, that God will draw me closer to Himself and expose the sin in my heart.  "For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8 ESV).  Let the light of the Lord expose the darkness of my heart and bring it into the light through the power of Christ's finished work on the cross.