Living in the Now: Consuming Food

This is a conservative formula for the past month.  There is often an extra mouth, not to mention the times we've eaten with a friends or family. My immediate family now numbers 14, so you can image the orchestration to just share our two birthday celebrations last month. Check it out:

3 Mouths per meal

3 Meals per day 

31 Days per month

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279 meals prepared in the month of March

Not to mention my needful morning coffee routine. Not to mention snacks. Not to mention second breakfasts. Not to mention helping friends. Not to mention...

HEAVENS.  There is freedom for me in realizing food is consuming. How could it not be? I'm thinking about food more hours than not. Researching good food (recipes, diets, restrictions).  Buying good food (grocery runs, coupon clipping, organizing my way-too-tiny pantry). Eating good food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bites in between).

What about you? Or am I just a food addict?

I have been completely committed to two ideas, at different times in my journey:

1. Food is a necessity.  Meals are important because creates space for communion together.  Thinking too much about food shows you have an eating problem. Being fed is a practical, yet often inconvenient task.

2. Food creates space for worship. Most of the time, I can't NOT think about food. God gave me a body needful of good food. I'm going to worship Him by eating deliberately completely, fully, and well. 

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8

 Could it be that tasting--eating--is a way for us to see how good the Lord is?  That it teaches us to take safety in His faithfulness?  Can we really worship while feeding our faces?  God, give me the heart that eats in a way honoring to You.

Journey: Feeding and Following

The next few weeks, we will be journeying on the ups and downs, sweets and savories, of eating. Discovering how much energy and time is invest into this necessity has been revealing the depth spiritual heart.  Eating is such a funny thing, universal to all of us: a necessity, often a lot of trouble, generally satisfying, revealing of culture, and a point of gathering.  No wonder prison punishment would be bread and water. Look what would be stripped away. 

Eating forms us.  Eating reveals our heart.

After my first child was born, I immediately lost almost all my pregnancy weight.  Before pregnancy, food was a point to satisfy craving and little more.  Continuing this mindset post-pregnancy with a new metabolism (biggest new mama shock!) crashed into an out of control self, speeding in the wrong direction for many months.  

Dieting for the first time revealed that I was a binge eater.  That was super embarrassing.  Face to face with doubt, I wondered not only if I was worth all the work it took to eat well, I also wondered if I had the gumption to keep going.

Today, three years later, I am at my perfect ideal weight, have my life totally in control, eat only healthy, organic, locally grown food, and am now going to share my pearls of wisdom with you.

NOT.

Honestly, the art of eating as a worshiper--in a way that glorifies God--is a constant struggle.  Maybe its been that way since that first forbidden bite of fruit in the garden.  Instead of mastering a skill set, settling that battle, I'm finding ways to worship God while eating.  Eating is so spiritual, and maybe its the first steps toward following God. Hopefully, you'll share your feeding journey, as well.

Precious Life with my Brother

Today is World Down Syndrome Day.  Wrestling with the best way to show a complete picture of life with my 10-year old brother with down syndrome (up syndrome!), I've rediscovered the depth of his intuition, the free love he extends to the known and unknown, and the crazy sense of humor he proudly displays.  To me, grieving his lack of normalcy is like grieving that you and I are not exactly the same.  He is a bearer of God's image in ways that are special--and completely unique--to him.  Ask me sometime, and I'll tell you more about this.

In the meantime, check out these videos for a broader picture than what I can paint.

This video is such a godly, true picture of my brother that it gives me goosebumps:

This documentary is superb, following the journey of young worshiping Lior: