Never gives up

Unseasonably warm weather in the northeast of Scotland. Despite all the redecorating jobs indoors, I dallied outside to clear away some of autumn’s dead leaves and branches. A noise broke through my thought-processes. The sound of many hooves, on the move. The occasional lowing as most of a herd of cows wandered up the road in search of food.

What do I know about herding cows? Enough to know that it’s harder than it looks.

By the time I reached the end of the drive, a farmer approached in his tractor. They weren’t his cows, but he knew whose they were. A few loud yells from him and the herd turned and headed back to where they belonged. The movement of his tractor kept them retracing their steps.

‘They’re hungry,’ he explained. ‘They’ve been left in the same field all winter and there’s no more to be eaten. They need to be moved.’

He expressed some frustration with the other farmer.

The steadfast love of the Lord shows itself in the unending mercies which come our way. He never leaves us in the desert without giving us food. Even during wintry seasons of life, he provides. We never need to break out in search of more.

And yet often we do. And the Lord’s grace and mercy ushers us back into safe territory where we can graze on his life-giving word.

I am profoundly grateful that he never gives up on me.

Feeding time

How do they know?

The bird feeders hung empty. The driveway was devoid of breadcrumbs, too. I filled them, hung them, scattered breadcrumbs (not from my homemade bread…) and hey, presto! Within a minute the place was jumpin’ with feathered friends tucking into breakfast.

How did the word get out so quickly? Were they all hunkered down nearby, hungrily hoping I might show up and quick to respond when I did? Were they nearly despairing, knowing there was every chance I just might not show up with nuts and seeds? Is there a birdsong frequency I just can’t hear, that put out the call: Food’s up!

I have just come out of the prayer window. God never leaves the spiritual feeders hanging empty. There’s a feast if I take the time with him. There are always crumbs scattered through the day, too, and I can enjoy him if my spiritual antennae are out. He is a faithful God, who never lets us down.

Weight Control

Saw a bit of a program on the television the other night about the diet industry. It was enough to make you quit eating. 

The dubious ethics of those in the sugar substitute industry, the diet food industry, the pharmaceutical industry ... well, it was pretty shocking.

 

I won’t go into all the details but eventually the presenter ended up at a restaurant out in the Baltic Sea, off Sweden, with a Swedish guy who has had a pioneering operation to keep his weight at a good level. No, it’s not the usual gastric by-pass, which limits the quantities you can consume after you’ve had the op. This goes a step further.

It is basically a plastic tube fitted into the stomach and passing out through the stomach wall, where it looks like – and is – a tap. The guy can eat whatever he wants, as much of it as he desires, and twenty minutes later he just goes to the toilet and turns on the tap. He lets a third of what he’s just eaten drain out of his stomach and down the toilet, rather than it turning to fat in his body.

How immoral! Imagine a world where millions go to bed hungry, and yet there are people fitted with taps so that they can pig out three times (or more) a day without paying any personal price! That is just sick. It bothers me to throw out mouldy bits of bread or outdated jars of jam, but this guy is basically just flushing down the toilet a third of the food he buys and eats.

Ours is a God of justice. He cares for the poor and marginalised, and he sees the injustices perpetrated against them. Many of us are guilty of wasting resources, but this is so flagrant, so calculated to satisfy a person’s gluttony – the price paid may not be paid by the consumer, who remains slim, but by the person denied food because of the greed of others.

I do lots of wrong things which no doubt hurt somebody, but I hope I never consciously choose to satisfy my own cravings, without giving a thought to the needs of others.