Feasting

A man went out in search of food. While he was searching, he came across mounds and mounds of food. He starts feasting on his recent find and it was the most delicious thing he has ever tasted. In his excitement he goes back to his friends and he tells them where he found all this food and invites them to join him. They all join him and start feasting. It is one of the greatest feasts they have ever had and everyone was happy. The food was great, they were having fun and it was awesome. Occasionally, people would find the place they are celebrating and asked if they could join them. They were welcomed and they continued feasting together and enjoyed each others company. Everything was perfect.

However, as time went on and as they continued feasting, they started becoming fat. New people who found the food saw all the fat people and were disgusted. They looked at the food and automatically thought that it was bad because they saw only the fat people eating it. After that, no one else came to feast. The ones who were feasting became fatter and fatter.

A friend of mine shared this parable with me during my fundraising for my internship. I was still deciding if I should do vocational ministry at this time.

I was very convicted of this parable. It reminds me of some of the communities that we as Christians have produced and generated. The communities we generate are GOOD! Jesus is GOOD!! He is worth feasting on constantly! When we find Jesus, we celebrate and we want others to experience who Jesus is so that they too can feast with us!! However, if we are doing nothing but feasting and not inviting others to come in, we become fat. The once joyful celebration we are doing has now actually worked against us. People outside look at us "fat" Christians and automatically don't want to even taste a bit of what Jesus has to offer. They go away in disgust and start telling their own friends to stay away from us beacuse we are "fat".

I'm sure we have all been part of communities that are "fat". I'm not saying that our current communities are fat themselves but the thing is... every single community can end up being "fat". We can get so self absorbed within ourselves that we forget to invite others into our communities.

So what can we do now? There are three possibile scenarios...

1. We can keep on feasting and keep on getting fatter and fatter.

2. We can keep on feasting and BRING a bit of food out to others.

3. We can keep on feasting and GO OUT and TELL others where to feast and INVITE them to feast with us.

Feasting is what fuels us. We need to feast, there is no question about it. However, if that becomes the only thing that we do, we become fat. It is this feasting that enables us to go and tell others where to feast and also to invite them to feast with us.

Let us continue to share the goodness of Jesus, let us continue to share the goodness of the Kingdom of God, let us continue to share the love of Jesus Christ, by going out and giving them a taste of what this looks like. Followed by telling them where to find this and eventually invite them to join us in feasting.

Prayer Labyrinth

As I walked down the very steep and dangerous path, I looked down to see a giant circle in the ground. Within this giant circle there was a smaller circle in the middle and a series of paths. As I looked closer to it, I saw that it was one giant path, winding and twisting within the giant circle leading to the smaller one. This was the prayer labyrinth.

I finally make it down and found myself at the entrance of the labyrinth. I can clearly see the middle and my engineering mind starts to kick in. I start thinking, "Why don't I just walk right to the center? I'll save so much time and it's that much more efficient." However, I wanted to walk down this path to see where it will take me and how it will speak to me. So I resisted the urge to just skip right to the middle, even though it was the "logical" thing to do.

I took my first steps into this prayer labyrinth walking very slowly making sure that I don't miss any turns. I remember walking through the winding paths, sometimes they would lead me so close to the inner circle that I could even touch it but next thing I know, the path takes me away from the inner circle leaving me the further away from when I first started. I remember pausing during the times I was furthest away thinking to myself, "Why am I even doing this? Why don't I just skip to the middle?" I felt frustrated and impatient because every time I got close to the circle, I would be taken away again. However, I still stuck with it and waited patiently.

After what seemed like an eternity (30 min), I make the final turn into the center of the circle. I remember as soon as I reached it and stood in the center, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace. It was so much more fulfilling going through that journey to reach the center. Knowing that I followed the path that God laid out for me.

This experience really reminded me of my tendencies to constantly rush into things. Many times I will see the goal and even sometimes the path to it but I will often try and skip parts of the path and go right to the center. I realize that the reward in the center is only worth it if I walk the path that God has laid out for me. Most of the reward is not the end goal in sight, but experience of the journey.