I’ve been putting off the week’s trip to the grocery…don’t want to take the kids, but too tired to go late night. One morning I go to the half-bare pantry and settle on what’s left for breakfast…carb-heavy, sugared-up CoCo Wheats. It tastes like childhood, the glory days of processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup, the days before we had a clue that Twinkies were bad for you.
Within an hour, I feel more tired than I did when I woke up. The pillow invites me back to sleep off that sugar crash. But I’ve got kids to take care of, so I muddle through, sighing and shouting out when the sugar gets them too.
All day long, the smart phone is on the kitchen counter waiting on that buzz and chime. And aren’t I eating out of Pavlov’s hand with the way I go for it? The screen glows and so do I to pick up a little morsel of words.
Psychologists say infants need ready response to sense they are known and loved, even to feel they exist. You and me? Seconds after we walk away from the screen, we’re hungry again for something else, cluster feeders crying out to the world, tell me I exist to you.
On the buffet sits the story I’ve been taking in all my life, milk to meat. Page corners turn up like wavy noodles. It’s been five years of flipping through this anthology during meals, words nourishing my boy from babyhood to now, us reading straight through from cover to middle. Today on page 943 of 1694, we find ourselves listening in on the strangest of dinner conversations.
There is this hand outstretched like a platter and it holds a scroll. Eat what you’re offered. Eat this book. We laugh at the menu choice, but Ezekiel doesn’t. He opens his mouth right up and swallows it down like manna straight from the hand of God. It tastes like raw honey.
I don’t have to explain it. Elliot dishes out the exegesis. Ezekiel has to eat the words so God’s words will be inside him. Then he can say God’s words.
I’ve done this before and I need to do it again if I want to give up the sighing and shortness and instead give out words full of grace and truth. I need to lay my Bible open on the kitchen counter like a cookbook, to check it more than social media, to let the soul feed and feel its worth, to taste and see that the Lord is good…all day long, no sugar crash.
{How do you blend a hearty helping of the Word into your everyday? What priority does communing with the Lord have in comparison to your interaction on social media? Comment below to share your thoughts on undistracted devotion.}
I wake up before the kids in an attempt to talk to God and read His Word to fill me up as I start the day. When those girls open their eyes, undistracted is no longer a term I can embrace. I found myself rushing through my prayer to move to the computer to see what is going on in my world numerous times throughout my time of quiet this a.m. I resisted the urge and opened my Bible instead. Grateful to be irritated that my daughter interrupted my time with God instead of my time with social media. Grateful I didn’t open my email first thing only to find messages that break my heart and sending my mind whirling. Great post, Darcy. So true and on my heart, too.
What you’re going through today is such a strong example of why we should be taking in His words first, before any others. So glad you were nourished spiritually before opening your email this morning. And yes, better to be annoyed at time with the Lord cut short than to be annoyed about having social media time interrupted. 😉
It’s such a profound thought – to liken God’s work to our daily bread (and Coco Wheats to social media, ha ha). Your kids are receiving a legacy that is worthy to be continued. I know God will honor the words you are feeding them. My own daily time with God’s word consists of sitting on the couch with Maggie in my lap and, ironically, reading from You Version on my phone. I’m currently reading Isaiah and Acts, but this wonderful verse from Jeremiah came to mind when I read your post:
“Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.”
-Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV
Thanks for pitching in that verse from Jeremiah. We read through that book in The Message not too long ago. I also read/listen from the You Version at the start of the day with my Hello Mornings group on Twitter (going through I Peter). So, I know there is a place for technology and social media in the modern spiritual life. But I also enjoy having the printed Bible (actually my regular Bible, not my Message Remix) out on the counter during the day as a visual reminder to go to it more often, kind of like conversational prayer throughout the day. Also, this part of the Message read-through has Ezekiel alternating with Acts, so we’re dipping into that adventurous book as well. It’s neat to see how different themes in the different books rise to the surface as you read them simultaneously.
I love the metaphor of eating a nourishing meal versus junk food. I am also trying not to post junk words on social media. Words – they have the power of life and death and I want to speak life words.
I have been thinking lately about the post below and scripture memory. I love his point on rest. We come to eat and come to rest. Find rest my soul in Christ alone.
http://www.yourchurch.com/the-college-park-blog/5-hints-on-memorization-that-leads-to-meditation/
Thanks for linking us to the refreshing post above. It’s interesting the connection between nourishment and rest, how we tend to scarf down junk food when we’re in a hurry while the most nutritious stuff takes time and thought, like the beef stew we ate from the crock pot this evening. It was the most nourishing meal we’ve had in a while and it made me glad I had a slow day at home to slow cook today. So true that we need to resist filling our schedules so our souls can be filled with better things than empty calories. Plus, I love what the pastor said about reading “for rest, not because you’re rested.” P.S. When you memorize, do you do a scattering of verses or do you try to do entire sections of Scripture?
Chapters – although I am flexible.
Darcy you spoke straight to my heart on this one! I actually think I’m going to try to put my Bible on the table opened and come back to it at various times during the day (perhaps concentrating on a chapter a day or as others have suggested memorizing scripture). Maybe even committing to read a particular passage every time BEFORE I get on social media! Shamefully, it would really up my Bible reading if that were the case.
Thanks for your insight! (Can’t wait to meet you!) 🙂
-Shae
Wow, Darcy, thank you for this! I struggle constantly–knowing I need to let go of the distractions and refocus on God and His word. It gets so frustrating not succeeding in limiting the social media and other noise. Sure people probably strayed focus a bit in Bible times, but it had to have been easier. They had quiet to commune with God… now it’s such a struggle to find that quiet! Thank you so much for this beautiful reminder that it’s worth the struggle.
PS, let us know when your book comes out–I’d love to read it! 😉
Love this idea! Great thinking. I am constantly trying to find ways to remember adding more of God’s Word into my day, and trying to make it more of a habit to be requiring it as well.