I require a lot of snacks. Do you? Something about this phase of my life: little ones who require a lot of attention, nursing, interrupted sleep, balancing an strong desire to create a more just universe with the concrete limitations of what I’m able to tackle each day. I imagine many of you can relate– whether you have kiddos or not. Come to think of it, I required a lot of snacks in graduate school, and in the peace corps, and college, and pretty much always.
Food is important, right? Little treats: dark chocolate, warm coffee, nourishing red lentil soup, my husband’s sautéed chard with ginger. These are critical. CRITICAL. to my quality of life right now. Little oases of comfort and sensory pleasure in a day where I sometimes feel that I give more than I get.
So this morning, I’m thinking about hungry folks in our city. How to live a good life without ready access to food? And not just any food-good food, the food you want to eat, when you want to eat it.
Richie works for the North Texas Food Bank and I asked him about hunger last night, as this is Bread for the World Sunday. He said that there are a lot of common misconceptions about hunger-people think that no one goes hungry in a country as wealthy as ours. Or they think that only the homeless are vulnerable to hunger. He told me about hungry kiddos, and hungry old people, and hungry mamas, and hungry singles and about spaces in our city called ‘nutrient deserts’ because the only ‘food’ available is sold at the convenience store.
At Church in the Cliff, we have many people who care about hungry people. Michael Connell feeds about 200 of them through the BACH program every Saturday. Lisa and Scott Shirley have maintained a relationship between our congregation and the Good Shepherd Community Center for months so that we can continue to support working families in West Dallas.
This week as we meditate on Mark 10:35-45, Jesus’ homily on servant leadership, I invite you to notice your own hunger as a spiritual practice. If you choose to abstain from a snack, I hope you will bring the money you save to church this week for our special offering for the food pantry of the Good Shepherd. Or go ahead and eat the snack, but bring some money too.
Peace and Grace to you all,
Courtney