Our
4 year-old granddaughter is learning about good nutrition in preschool. She is now very good at pointing out what is
“good” food (chicken, milk, vegetables) and what is “sometimes” food (ice
cream, pop, cupcakes). “Sometimes” food
is, as the name suggests, food that you can eat every now and then. But if you make a habit of eating only these
foods, you’re not going to grow big and strong….just big and fat.
What’s
true about physical food for our bodies is also true about spiritual food for
our souls. The sorts of spiritual
influences you surround yourself with will affect the health and condition of
your soul. So what are you feeding your
soul?
Some
people enjoy the spiritual equivalent of twinkies. They look appealing, taste good, and go down
easy. But they provide only empty
calories that fail to support and active and healthy body. Spiritual twinkies are the feel-good messages
that surround us. They tell us that
someone else is the problem, and that “somebody” ought to do something about
it. They tell us that we are perfectly
fine just the way we are. Instead of challenging
or stretching us with new ideas to ponder, they simply spit back out at us what
we already believe, so that we can remain comfortably ignorant.
At
the other end of the spectrum we find the spiritual equivalent of tofu. While tofu may have its fans, most people
find it as appealing as library paste…only not as tasty. There’s no doubt that it’s healthy, but most
of us find it so unappealing that we’d rather take our chances with greasy
hamburgers and French fries. Spiritual
tofu has no interest in winning over friends: just speaking the hard-to-accept
truths of life. They convey the message
that in order to be spiritually healthy, you must live a bland, harsh life
devoid of any joy or excitement. It’s
good for you, but it’s not very good.
Fortunately,
God loves us too much to allow us only the choice between twinkies and
tofu. He wants us to enjoy the goodness
of the life he’s given us, and he wants us to find that enjoyment in what
fulfills and strengthens us. The spiritual
nourishment that he offers is more like chicken soup: healthy and satisfying at
the same time. It will challenge and
stretch us, but also provide us with joy and peace. Just because something feels good does not
mean it is God’s message of comfort for us.
And, just because something sounds challenging and difficult does not
mean that it is God’s message of guidance for us.
Unfortunately,
however, spiritual food doesn’t come with nutrition labels. So how can you tell twinkies and tofu from
chicken noodle soup? Or, to quote 1 John
4:1, how can we “test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because
many false prophets have gone out into the world”? We can find a hint in John 10, where Jesus
tells us that the sheep learn to recognize the voice of their shepherd. The more time we spend listening to and for
our Shepherd speaking to us, the easier it will be for us to recognize his
words of guidance in confusion of the many messages we receive.
