Real Food

I found myself ordering a salad the other evening from a food outlet which advertised its "real food".  Now, I haven't been tempted to eat pretend plastic food since my childhood, so I found the promotional technique a little odd.

What else would I be looking for other than "real food"?

I think the advertising ploy was intended to conjure up images of handmade, lovingly crafted, good-for-you food, the kind of food you'd cook at home and know was both healthy and tasty.  I think it was a statement of a shift away from the mass-produced, deep-fried, instant food of many fast food outlets. 

It got me thinking about what we mean by 'real', especially by 'real food' in a spiritual sense: something that will satisfy our deepest hunger and will 'do us good'.

We all hunger.  For meaning, for significance, for purpose.  We want to know that we matter, that we belong and that we are loved.  It is a hunger and a desire in each of us, which reaches to the depths our beings.

We try to fill this hunger in many different ways and with many different 'foods'.  We turn to money and wealth and jobs and fame and popularity and 'coolness' and relationship and friendship and children and sex and alcohol and TV and clothes and books and the list goes on and on.

And all of these things fill us for a little while.  Some even taste good.

But they don't satisfy our hunger for long.  We always want more.  They can't satisfy the very depths of our longings.

There is only one 'real food' who can satiate our hunger: Jesus.

He described Himself as providing this "real food" and nourishment for our spirits and our souls:

"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

[John 6:35 NLT]

And He warned,

"Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food [...] work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides."

[John 6:27 MSG]

One of my favourite songs which considers this issue is by Plumb and is called 'God Shaped Hole' (you might recognise it from the film 'Bruce Almighty').  These are the words -

Every point of view has another angle
And every angle has its merit
But it all comes down to faith
That's the way I see it

You can say that love is not divine and
You can say that life is not eternal
"All we have is now"
But I don't believe it

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And the restless soul is searching
There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And it's a void only He can fill

Does the world seem grey with empty longing
Wearing every shade of cynical?
And do you ever feel that
There is something missing?

I would love to say that when I feel hungry, I always opt for the "real food" option - both literally and spiritually - but all too often I prefer the cheap, fast easy alternatives.  As I continue to grow in my relationship with Jesus I want to be able to say, in the words of the song,
"Hungry I come to You, For I know You satisfy."