Fast Food or Feast?

Snacking or grazing? 

Snatched morsels of nourishment don’t always contain much nourishment. Fast food can be nothing more than chemicals and calories. Wholesome food is that which is grown well and prepared with care. It takes time to make and time to consume.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Feed on me in your heart, Jesus says. The richness of God’s word is released in our lives as we ruminate on it. Snacking on the odd verse of scripture may hush our consciences but doesn’t always do much to feed our souls. 

We are challenged to train our spirits, to train ourselves like athletes train themselves. It can’t be done in minutes. We can’t really be all that God has designed us to be unless we linger in his presence, suck on his words, savour the taste and allow him time to speak, to heal, to console, to guide, to love us.

Today I arose early to spend some time grazing. I hope that during the day, I might ruminate on what I have read this morning.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!

Dry and Weary

Everyone needs a place. A place to rest and recover, to ponder and be refreshed. A layby along the way.

I have a prayer alcove. When my husband and sons were rebuilding our living room, with its very thick, old walls, one son suggested creating a prayer seat for me in one of the windows. 

It is my place of retreat. It is right in the living room, but when I sink onto that seat, I turn off from the jobs around me and slip into a more pensive and prayerful mood. One of my Bibles is there, and various notebooks and crosses and prayers. I’ve had a candle there sometimes, and just thought this morning I should keep my MP3 player there so that I can be refreshed sometimes with praise music.

Psalm 63 is one of my favourite pieces of Scripture.  It begins: ‘O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.’

In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

It hasn’t stopped pouring rain here for weeks, maybe months. Don texted me this morning that the roads were flooded.

I am not in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

But it reminds me of a line from Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. ‘Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.’

The water flooding our roads and fields does not offer the refreshment I get when I sink onto my seat in my prayer alcove. 

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  John 7:37.

Jesus is the source of life-giving, refreshing water. When I drink from him, I am renewed, and I can splash out into soggy Scotland with a singing heart.

Where do you go when you are dry and weary?

Friday's Feast

It’s a glorious summer day here, unbelievably on the last day of September. In a t-shirt, all the doors open and a million flies filling up the house. 

The dog is flaked on the couch – it’s not her kind of weather. But it is mine, and like it or not, she’ll be heading out with me on our afternoon jaunt in a minute.

Spent the morning in the kitchen, doing some prep for the weekend’s social calendar. A dinner party tonight, a tea party tomorrow, and B&B guests over the weekend as well. So a bit more of the dusting is required, a few flowers to be brought in, more cooking to be undertaken. 

What a blessing it is to have a house, and a kitchen, and the money to buy enough food to share with others. What a blessing to prepare food for others, and to anticipate good, stimulating conversation over a glass or two of wine.

I’m thinking of others round the world, suffering for their faith, suffering for reaching out to the injured and helping them, suffering for lack of food. And I am thankful.