Make A Meal Of It

I have just spotted that the yoghurt I bought yesterday has the phrase "Eat well, feel uplifted" on the lid.

 

That's a pretty bold claim.

 

I have definitely experienced some degree of uplifting from a satisfying meal - a warming casserole on a winter's night; hot bread or cake straight from the oven; butter melting down the sides of a jacket potato (I am making myself hungry just writing those).  But I'm not sure that food can really uplift us in the long-term.

 

I love it when supermarkets have samples of food - pieces of cake, cubes of cheese, sometimes even thimbles of something alcoholic.

 

However, whilst these are tasty, they are not a meal in themselves.

 

They don't satisfy.

 

They whet our appetite and create a longing for something more.

 

In the same way, if we just sample snippets of God's word, nibbling our way through odd passages here and there, we will never feel satisfied.  We won't be truly uplifted.

 

We need to take the time to sit down and 'eat' God's word.  We need to make space to savour His words and chew things over.  We need to be like the Psalmist who said, 

 

        "You thrill to God's Word,
        you chew on Scripture day and night."

 

        [Psalm 1:2 MSG]

 

Or,

 

       "I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you,
       I attentively watch how you’ve done it.
       I relish everything you’ve told me of life,
       I won’t forget a word of it."

 

       [Psalm 119:16 MSG]

 

 

We need to make a meal out of God's word.  Not just a snack, which staves off our hunger for a short while, but doesn't really satisfy.  But a sit-down, take-your-time, three-course meal.

 

Yes, it's more effort.  But it is also more satisfying.

 

And, like any really good meal, it leaves us wanting more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single-Minded Pursuit

I watched the film 'Mr Bean's Holiday' this afternoon.  I've never seen it before, so I had it on in the background whilst I was doing other things.

 

He wins a holiday to Cannes in the south of France, but inevitably struggles to get there in a straightforward manner.

 

At one point in the film, he has mistakenly taken the wrong taxi across Paris and ended up in the furthest place from where he wanted to be: Gare de Lyon station.  He finds a tourist 'You are Here ' map and locates where he currently is in comparison to the station.

 

Once he realises he is as far away as he possibly could be, he sets his compass for the direction of Gare de Lyon and begins walking.

 

And he walks in a completely straight line.

 

In true Bean style, he stops walking when a stationary pedestrian is in his way and he waits for the pedestrian to move.  When he encounters a row of benches, he simply walks over them.

 

He walks along main roads, in the middle of traffic and nearly causes many accidents as cars swerve to avoid hitting him.

 

He is a man on a mission and several scenes later he arrives at Gare de Lyon.

 

He pursues his mission single-mindedly and he doesn't veer off course until he reaches his destination.

 

Yesterday I wrote about God guiding us along the path to everlasting life.  But it's not enough to just have the path mapped out for us.  We need to walk in it.

 

The Psalmist advises a similar, single-minded pursuit to that seen by Bean:

"You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God.  You're blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him.  That's right - you don't go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set [...] I’m single-minded in pursuit of you."

 

[Psalm 119:1-3, 9 MSG] 

 

 

How do we stay on course?

"Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in."

 

[Hebrews 12:2 MSG] 

 

This is the kind of pursuit I want to have.  This is the single-mindedness I want. 

 

The path is before me.  I have only to walk in it.

 

 

 

 

 

Mist

I'm up even earlier today than I usually would be during the week.

I am on a very early train.

I can't see much past the windows on the train because it's so foggy outside. I can see maybe ten feet away from the carriage on either side before the world disappears into swirling white mist.

Waiting at the station, it was cold and damp and misty and I couldn't see very far ahead of me. In fact, I could hear the train a long time before it became visible through the fog.

Sometimes in life, we can't see more than a few feet in front of us either. We can see our own feet, but the rest of the road dissolves into the mist. We don't know where we're going or what the future might hold.

If, like me, you like to be organised and know the 'big picture', this lack of direction and vision is frustrating and limiting and restricting.

But it also makes me more dependent on God.

The Bible describes how God's word reveals our path to us -

"By your words, I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path."

[Psalm 119:103 MSG]

We may not be able to see the road ahead of us, but as we take small steps of faith and grow closer to God through His word, we find that the road will appear at our feet.