"Get Up and Eat"
Excerpt from 1 Kings 19:4-8
"[Elijah] went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: 'It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.' Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, 'Get up and eat.' He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, 'Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.' He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God."
Reflection by Christina Villa
Here is the angel of the Lord, like somebody's grandmother, urging Elijah to "get up and eat." It's not much—bread and water—but fortified with two such meals, plus a couple of naps, Elijah is fit for his forty-day journey.
If only we could have such faith in just the basics: three meals a day and a night's sleep. Since these are so easy to come by for most of us, maybe we take them for granted. I don't mean taking for granted our good fortune in having enough to eat. I mean maybe we're unaware of the healing power of simply eating our meals and getting our sleep.
We think that in times of disappointment or despair we require something extra to make us feel better—whether it's the large order of fries or a vacation home in Costa Rica. Yoga classes, a better therapist, free-range chicken, heirloom tomatoes.
After a death, grieving people often can't eat, so everyone brings food to the house after a funeral. At those times, the urgency of "Get up and eat" is clear. You are here in the land of the living: that's the message of all those casseroles and loaves of banana bread.
Eat and rest. Meet your basic requirements. Experiment with the sufficiency of these to make you fit for whatever journey you face this week. And you may find yourself enjoying the french fries or the heirloom tomatoes more than ever.
Prayer
Dear God, send us angels to remind us that if we eat, drink, and rest, we can get up and continue on our journeys, even through the wilderness. Amen.
Excerpt from 1 Kings 19:4-8
"[Elijah] went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: 'It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.' Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, 'Get up and eat.' He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, 'Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.' He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God."
Reflection by Christina Villa
Here is the angel of the Lord, like somebody's grandmother, urging Elijah to "get up and eat." It's not much—bread and water—but fortified with two such meals, plus a couple of naps, Elijah is fit for his forty-day journey.
If only we could have such faith in just the basics: three meals a day and a night's sleep. Since these are so easy to come by for most of us, maybe we take them for granted. I don't mean taking for granted our good fortune in having enough to eat. I mean maybe we're unaware of the healing power of simply eating our meals and getting our sleep.
We think that in times of disappointment or despair we require something extra to make us feel better—whether it's the large order of fries or a vacation home in Costa Rica. Yoga classes, a better therapist, free-range chicken, heirloom tomatoes.
After a death, grieving people often can't eat, so everyone brings food to the house after a funeral. At those times, the urgency of "Get up and eat" is clear. You are here in the land of the living: that's the message of all those casseroles and loaves of banana bread.
Eat and rest. Meet your basic requirements. Experiment with the sufficiency of these to make you fit for whatever journey you face this week. And you may find yourself enjoying the french fries or the heirloom tomatoes more than ever.
Prayer
Dear God, send us angels to remind us that if we eat, drink, and rest, we can get up and continue on our journeys, even through the wilderness. Amen.
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