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I was a "latch-key" kid when I was in elementary school.
(That's what we called the kids who would walk home, let themselves into their houses, and spend a few hours alone at home until their parents returned.)
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I still remember the freedom that came with that.
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I remember well the day I won a bag of M&Ms in a rope-climbing competition in gym...and it wasn't just the little "personal" bag - it was the big one you would dump into a bowl at a party! That bag of goodness sat in my backpack all day...and all day, I dreamed of how I was going to devour them as soon as I got home. It was perfect...my mom didn't even know I HAD the bag, so I could get away with it. It would be gone by the time she got home, I could bury the empty bag in the bottom of the trash can...I had it all planned out.
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Fast forward a few hours, to when my mother returned home...she found an 8-year-old boy in bed. The rush of sugar gave me a nasty headache, and made me feel like I was about to be sick.
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She had made a wonderful dinner, as she always did...but I didn't eat a bite. I felt terrible...in my body and in my mind...because my plan had backfired, and I had been found out.
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We all know this. Junk food (like M&Ms) tastes sweet at the start, but that sweetness doesn't last. If we fill up on that, there's no room for the nutrition that truly sustains us.
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I am thinking about junk food, nutrition, and what we choose to "fill up on" because of the Scriptures assigned for today:
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The Lord says, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good.” Isaiah 55:2
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Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27
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I also have a song lyric that came to mind this morning, from a song I played during a sermon just a few weeks ago (so those who were there that morning may remember this...). It is from a song entitled "Life Means So Much" by Chris Rice:
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"Every day is a bank account and time is our currency. So no one's rich, nobody's poor. We get 24 hours each. So how are you going to spend? Will you invest or squander? Try to get ahead or help someone who's under?"
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As the first light dawns on this Thursday, I find myself wondering how often I spend my hours for the things that don't satisfy...for the things that perish. How often do I live in a state of constant busy-ness and have little to show for it? Sure, crossing off one more to-do list item tastes sweet at first, but the sweetness doesn't stick around, because there's always 10 more items on the list.
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How often do I fill my day with things won't last, and miss the moments that endure...like this one...as I sit, contemplating ancient truths, instead of folding the basket of laundry that's sitting right next to me. There will be time for the laundry after this. But if I did the laundry first, I bet I wouldn't have come back to this deep moment.
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Today, like every other day, will present us with hundreds of choices of what will fill our time. May God grant us the wisdom and the peace to choose a few moments of nutrition...a moment for prayer; a break to re-read the passages above; a moment to truly listen to a loved one who simply needs to be heard. May God give us the power to prioritize today.
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PRAYER:
Bread of life and living Water, we feed on your word and the life it reveals. Fill us, complete us, save us! Amen.*
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*Prayer taken from the Moravian Daily Texts
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