January 23, 2008

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4

I recently heard a news report that a bowl of cereal and milk probably cost me 49 cents each morning. Last year, it was 44 cents. By next year, it could be 56 cents. It's enough to make you cry in your cornflakes! Well, I am sure you, too have noticed the rising food costs. I admit I am not going hungry and neither is my family, but my grocery bill has drastically increased and that makes me a little uncomfortable. Just last week, I had to tell my daughter to put the green grapes back...they cost $8.00 for a small bag! Ridiculous!

As I have been whining about the rising cost of groceries lately, I witnessed something yesterday that I hadn't seen in my hometown before. On my daily run, I saw two men rummaging through a grocery store dumpster filling their tattered, plastic bags with rotten fruit and other discarded food items. Obviously they were hungry. The reason for their hunger? I am not sure. Were they just lazy, refusing to work? Or were they truly in poverty? Only my Heavenly Father knows. Frankly, when I think about hunger, I usually think in terms of mass starvation in far-away countries, but obviously hunger lurks in my own backyard.

This morning as I ate my whole wheat bagel (cost-28 cents), cleaned out the frige, tossing out some old spaghetti sauce and other less than appealing leftovers, the image of those hungy men collecting food from the trash flashed into my mind.

What do you want me to do, Lord?

Should our community open a soup kitchen and feed the hungry? I firmly believe we should be concerned about the issues of poverty and hunger. We must provide for the physical need before we attempt to fulfill the spiritual void. To do this we must first examine our own lives. We must be real about the poverty and hunger of our own souls. We are all needy. The only hope for all of us is the Gospel...the good news that sets the captive free. I am desperate for you, Lord. Fill me and satisfy my soul!

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35