I remember hearing a missionary in Mozambique say, “I don’t fast to become more spiritual. I fast so that I know what it’s like to be hungry.”
The last few days I was hungry. The little food we had, I was trying to save for my kids. We had spent a lot of my husband’s first paycheck moving into our new place, and didn’t have much left.
Hunger is humbling. Hunger reminds us that our frame is just dust.
Yesterday, I bought a cart load of groceries--thanks to the State of Oregon--so that we can eat like kings until the next paycheck catches us up. I felt a little shame “spending tax-payer money” to feed my family fresh fruit and vegetables, but since shame accomplishes nothing I decided to be thankful.
After feeding the kids and giving my husband a plate in the living room, I sat at my kitchen table alone surrounded with half-empty moving boxes, looking at my plate of asparagus, pasta and sausage. I don’t faithfully pray before every meal, but this time I remembered. "Thank you, Jesus, for this food," I said over and over. "And bless the State of Oregon and the taxpayers who paid for it."
I thought of all the people in the world who don’t have a government or a neighbor or a relative they can ask for food. So I prayed a childish prayer: “God, please feed everyone in the world who is hungry.”
What can I do? I can send some money to my friends who are rescuing babies in China. I can freely give to people I know as I have freely received. I can buy a cup of coffee for one of my homeless friends. I can support my friends‘ businesses. "I can make a difference!"
But maybe the childish prayer is good. God, please feed everyone who is hungry. And use me. Many are hungry, in many different ways. Hungry for love, hungry for significance, hungry for redemption. And just plain hungry for food.
In the imminent future of God’s Kingdom coming to earth, for the ones who hang all their needs on God Himself, there will be no more crying, no more sighing, no more sickness, "and He will wipe every tear from their eye." Soon He will erase sickness, pain, and hunger, too.
It’s my honor to help feed the hungry, but only the wise, good, and generous King will solve hunger once and for all. My faith is in Him, not humanity. The ones with faith in humanity will call me naïve, but I take comfort in His justice. The meek will inherit the earth, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, in every way.
