My favorite food has changed over the years. When I was younger it was definitely ribs. I still love ribs, I just can’t eat them too often. My teeth need a break, and so does my waist. If pressed, my answer now might be shrimp, but it’s too easy to get bad seafood in the middle of the desert. So for the last five years my response to “What’s your favorite food?” has been chips and salsa AND ranch. Go ahead, raise your eyebrows. But I dare you… mix the ranch and the salsa, dip your chip, and then get back to me. I love it. But this is also a very, very dangerous delicacy to love. I am notorius for eating multiple baskets of chips and salsa prior to the arrival of my meal at restaurants. By the time my food arrives I’ve filled up on carbs and don’t have room for any of the things my body actually needs. Tortilla chips may fill me up for a while, but they certainly won’t satisfy or sustain me for long. Darn you, chips and salsa!
Jeremiah 2:13 says “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Jeremiah laments with the Lord that the Israelites have made faulty cisterns. They have spun their wheels and worked to an end that simply will not satisfy. How often do I fill up on the chips and salsa of this world and forget what will actually satisfy my every need?
Isaiah 55:2 reads, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fair.”
This world is full of some amazing diversions, but we know in our hearts that there must be more than simply drinking coffee and following celebrity gossip. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He has come to bring the abundant life. We choose everyday whether we will exist or really live. May we learn to eat what is good and satisfying (God’s Word and and His presence) and not fill up on the fluff of this world. Come to the banquet table ready to feast!
Following,
Ginger
