Rare Banquets and Regular Breakfasts

You can probably recall a regal repast in your past—a wedding reception, graduation banquet, birthday bash. On our Virginia Beach honeymoon (“Virginia is for Lovers”) Gigi talked me into ordering a lobster dinner for two. I had never before tasted lobster. This was therefore a step of faith for me, and the price was an astoundingly expensive $25 (those were the days). But I loved it! Together we picked that baby clean. Years later our family enjoyed and still talks about “The Best Chocolate Cake Ever” at Mark and Lara’s wedding reception.

We have eaten innumerable meals together over the past 50 years and 4 months. Gigi prepared most, and Gigi is a great cook. But I remember details of almost none of them. Don’t ask me, for example, to recall breakfast on Wednesday, March 17, 1982.

Your and my Christian faith is nourished by the word of God: “Your words were found and I ate them; your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I bear your name, O Yahweh Sabaoth.” Sometimes God’s words enter our ears with unbelievable beauty and majesty that blow us away. An evangelistic message that prompts our conversion; a sermon that addresses an immediate, anguished need; the exegesis of an idea that erupts into an “Aha!” Such memorable moments remain meaningful and motivating for many months.

Most of the meals Gigi and I have enjoyed since 1973 did not feature Lobster-for-the-Very-First-Time or The-Best-Chocolate-Cake-Ever. Though therefore unremembered, they were nevertheless eaten, enjoyed, and nutritious. They comprise most of the food that has sustained and delighted me over the years.

What feeds our faith most effectively is munching and mulling—often mundanely and unremarkably—the milk and meat of the Master’s Message. Most sermons and devotionals do not dazzle. But when lovingly prepared from good ingredients (the Bible well exegeted), even ordinary ones end up providing most of our spiritual nourishment.