Food

BETHANY TIPPIN

I’m up in the wee hours of the morning these days, often preparing food in large quantities. I’m learning that feeding people feeds my soul. On the flip side, it also wearies my body. This morning, I’m particularly tired and found myself wondering if this way of serving is really that important… 

In an emotionally low moment, I chose prayer over chasing circling thoughts. (I definitely recommend this choice!) 

I hopped on the Lectio365 app and began praying. God met me squarely in the day’s theme: hospitality. The prayer host this morning, after reading from Acts 2, said, “The presence of the Spirit didn’t just change the way the [first] followers of Jesus preached and prayed, it introduced them to a completely new way of living as they began to meet one another’s practical needs and shared life together in a generous and joyous community. It also involved a great amount of food!” 

Ah, well… thank you, Spirit. 

He went on to say, “The radical hospitality of the Jerusalem Church had an impact on the wider population that no amount of preaching alone could have done. This new way of living proclaimed more eloquently than any orator that the kingdom of God had come. No wonder people came day by day and were saved.” 

The assurance of the Spirit flooded me with peace and a feeling of electricity. There is a fundamentally deep and important reason that baking, cooking, and serving food satisfies something within me. Instead of shrugging off this delight as a “nothing,” I find it evidence once again of God’s upside-down way of the kingdom. What if feeding the high school girls swim team was the most important thing I will do all day? What changes if we consider feeding people a legitimate way to “preach” the gospel?