|
 Tasha loves to watch the Biggest Loser, a reality show that
brings together people who are grossly obese and helps them to
regain health and wellness. It is not my favorite show. However,
since it is on for two hours every Tuesday I can’t help but absorb a
bit and one of the most fascinating things about the show is
watching the people come to grips that food is not their problem but
rather a symptom of their problem. For them food has become a drug
that temporarily alleviates their low self esteem, sorrow over a
past event, or depression. They keep eating because they hope,
wrongly, that they can eat enough to finally feel better. It never
works. And so they go on TV and go through a brutal regimen all in
an effort to weigh less and lead a healthy lifestyle. But it won’t
work, it can’t work, if they don’t deal with the real problem.
And this is what we can discover as we fast, that as our physical
hunger grows we are able to unfold our spiritual hunger, that need
we are seeking to satiate in our lives. All of us have something or
things we hunger for, acceptance, love, success, faith, joy,
happiness. We long for these things. And as we allow ourselves to
experience the sensation of physical hunger we unfold the realities
of our true hunger and open ourselves to God in a new way. Jesus
prepared for his ministry by fasting. Matthew tells us he spent 40
days and 40 nights fasting in the wilderness, shorthand for a long,
long, time. When the Satan comes to tempt him, he first offers Jesus
food. But Jesus’ fasting has prepared him. He is hungry, starving in
fact, but he has come to understand something, that we do not live
on bread alone. And so, as I think about all those people on the
Biggest Loser, I think constantly of Jesus’ [to top of second column] |
words and I remember that all the food in the world can’t feed the
hunger in our souls for the gifts of God. Food offers us no love, no
grace, no hope, no resurrection, no promise. These are the things
that feed the human soul and when we successfully ignore our stomach
we might find it is our soul that has been nourished.
Prayer: Holy God, feed me. Nourish my soul. Restore my
hopes. Feed my joy that I may grow in my knowledge and experience of
you. I ask you to help me to prepare for Lent by finding a
discipline and growing in my relationship with you. I pray in Jesus’
name.
[Text from file recieved by Phil Blackburn].
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