day seventeen – a picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
This is really recent, i.e. this morning. I was thinking about Narayanan Krishnan's words. He said he was really disturbed after seeing a poor homeless man on the street eat his own waste out of hunger.
While chomping on my ordinary sandwich, it really hit me that I have DONE NOTHING to deserve whatever I have been eating and will continue to eat. Why am I not the one who is so overcome by hunger that I would actually consider eating my own poop?
After feeling really disturbed and troubled, I am really sure that God has not given me food for nothing when he's let me know that there are others who eat things that are probably not even proper food, eg: rats and tree roots in parts of Africa, rats and tree bark in parts of North Korea, or rotting food in the garbage dumps in Port-au-Prince and Manila.
When I look at my food or drink, I see that it is Jesus' flesh and blood sacrificed on my behalf, just as Jesus intended us to as a vital and daily means to remember him. The way we cook our food (slicing into nice pieces, cooking under great heat and pressure...) reminds me of the intense pain Jesus went through. I can't imagine myself being a carrot, or a piece of juicy meat under all that ticklish and stinky marination, and excruciating cutting and cooking, only to end up being eaten. The food that I eat gives me energy to live the hope that transcends above mortality and remember Jesus' humiliating and offensive sacrifice as an innocent person taking the rap of the world of today, yesterday and the future, and then coming back to life to shatter whatever chains of ugly evil we have in our hearts.
If you think I'm crazy, it's understandable. I believe that I will come back to life to live for eternity after I die, and I believe the same for all who believe in Jesus, dating from the first humans to exist on earth. We will have new bodies, and the whole of our world (universe?) would be re-created in a spiritual and physical way (I have no idea how something spiritual will look like).
And now when I look at my food, I see all that, and also that there is a divine reason behind why I am materially rich - so that I can remember the poor, and live a life of hopefully increasing compassion.
This is really recent, i.e. this morning. I was thinking about Narayanan Krishnan's words. He said he was really disturbed after seeing a poor homeless man on the street eat his own waste out of hunger.While chomping on my ordinary sandwich, it really hit me that I have DONE NOTHING to deserve whatever I have been eating and will continue to eat. Why am I not the one who is so overcome by hunger that I would actually consider eating my own poop?
After feeling really disturbed and troubled, I am really sure that God has not given me food for nothing when he's let me know that there are others who eat things that are probably not even proper food, eg: rats and tree roots in parts of Africa, rats and tree bark in parts of North Korea, or rotting food in the garbage dumps in Port-au-Prince and Manila.
When I look at my food or drink, I see that it is Jesus' flesh and blood sacrificed on my behalf, just as Jesus intended us to as a vital and daily means to remember him. The way we cook our food (slicing into nice pieces, cooking under great heat and pressure...) reminds me of the intense pain Jesus went through. I can't imagine myself being a carrot, or a piece of juicy meat under all that ticklish and stinky marination, and excruciating cutting and cooking, only to end up being eaten. The food that I eat gives me energy to live the hope that transcends above mortality and remember Jesus' humiliating and offensive sacrifice as an innocent person taking the rap of the world of today, yesterday and the future, and then coming back to life to shatter whatever chains of ugly evil we have in our hearts.
If you think I'm crazy, it's understandable. I believe that I will come back to life to live for eternity after I die, and I believe the same for all who believe in Jesus, dating from the first humans to exist on earth. We will have new bodies, and the whole of our world (universe?) would be re-created in a spiritual and physical way (I have no idea how something spiritual will look like).
And now when I look at my food, I see all that, and also that there is a divine reason behind why I am materially rich - so that I can remember the poor, and live a life of hopefully increasing compassion.
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