Eating with Thankfulness
Testimony from Urbana 06by Pete Juvinall
On December 29th, 2006, I had the opportunity to eat a porridge meal. Because
of its high nutritional value, the porridge is often served to starving people
in famine zones around the world.
Prior to sitting down to that simple meal, I walked through an exhibit put on by World Vision designed to let people in on the daily experience of someone who has been affected by AIDS. We were encouraged to step inside this person’s world and see how their life has been shaped by the disease.
It was through the lens of a starving AIDS patient in Africa that my wife and I gave up another opportunity to eat with friends and chose to eat the porridge meal. The convention staff greeted us with cheers and applause as we walked into the dining area. They did not believe people would show up to eat. I was fearful of what the food would taste like. At that moment, I tried to recall the person whose life I had just experienced. I imagined the thanksgiving they must feel when they have opportunities such as this to nourish themselves.
The food that was set before me was much different than anything I had ever eaten. It was meager and lacked much taste. In the city where I live, eating at home is often the exception while eating in a restaurant is the norm. My city is primarily a white collar city. If asked what people in my city lacked in life, a person might list a number of things such as a bigger house, more money in their IRA, a larger salary, or even a laptop, the latter of which over 400 people, including me, waited for all night in freezing temperatures the day after Thanksgiving.
As I ate the meal, I found myself asking what it would be like to really want this, to really need this, and to be thankful for what I received. And I wept. I wept for the selfish disappointment I felt when I didn’t get the laptop I had waited in line all night for. I wept for the way I feel insecure when my IRA loses money. I wept for the frustration I feel when I forget to backup my iTunes library after I’d just bought a couple of tracks. I wept for when I feel like I can’t provide for my three year old son by being able to take him out to McDonald’s whenever he wants. It was humbling to look at this meal and think that brothers and sisters in other parts of the world may look at the same meal with thankfulness – thankfulness for a simple meal that sustains and nourishes them in the midst of deep hunger.
The aftertaste of the meal lingered for a day or so. Each time I thought about it, it made me thankful that when my “security” is stripped away, when I don’t think about IRAs or jobs or the minor cares of this life, I realize where my true security and peace lies. My security and peace lies in a God who sustains me and loves me more than I could ever imagine.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register