A Heavenly Feast

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I know for many it is Christmas and I love recognizing the birth of Christ but to me, I can recognize that at all times of the year. What many people love about Christmas is the Christmas season, which I LOVE but it is depressing that as soon as Christmas day has come and gone, radio stations stop playing Christmas music almost immediately and the element of excitement of Christmas morning quickly dissipates. HOWEVER, Thanksgiving is the beginning of the Christmas season and such a sweet time of fellowship and community with family and friends. For my family, it is a time for all of us to get together and eat and laugh and watch football and simply enjoy each others company. No drama with gift buying and worrying about whether or not the receiver of the gift will like their present. None of that. AND not to mention the food.

Now...I realize that I have many corks in my personality and one of them is that when I'm eating, I have a tendency to get bored with the taste of a certain food. There are people who enjoy their foods because of the texture, I've never been one of those. I get the most enjoyment out of eating because of the flavor that food brings. This is why I very rarely put sauce or seasonings on my food and while eating a meal of multiple food items, I finish one before moving onto the next. Case in point? I prefer my fresh fries plain and unless something needs salt or pepper, I do without it. This is another reason I love Thanksgiving. I get to feast on a myriad of different foods...a little bit of everything and my taste buds are always entertained (did I really just say that?!).

My prayer for this summer was that I would simply become more rooted in the Lord. More rooted in His love and more rooted in my identity in Him. In response to this prayer, He has invited me to an overwhelming and amazing feast. He has invited me to feast on all He is. My thoughts are literally all over the board. I'm being challenged in so many different ways that all have a way of connecting. My passion for social justice is being challenged with what it really looks like to be a servant and how skewed my own motives are. He is growing me in trust and along with that, being beckoned to dive head first into His perfect love. He is challenging me to seek His purpose in all situations and though there may be a lack of clarity, He is teaching me that it is okay that I don't have the answers but to simply be obedient in following Him and in His timing all things will make sense. He is showing me what it means to live a life of risk through faith in Him. I read Crazy Love by Francis Chan this past fall and he says that living a life of faith means us stepping out in a way that if the Lord doesn't back us up, we're screwed. To live a life like this requires serious abandonment of all things me. It requires self-forgetfulness to plunge into who He is.

Though these things might all boil down to the element of trusting Him, the way these things are being presented in my life are all over the place. However, these many different things come together to form a full plate fit for a feast. Just like for Thanksgiving dinner, all these foods from rolls, to stuffing, to mashed potatoes, to corn, to turkey, etc...come together to form a grand and wonderful feast; everything I'm learning and being taught funnel into the character of Christ. The best part? This is a feast that I can never get full from. My prayer is that I always continue to starve for more of Him. His is a heavenly feast.

It's time to grab a fork and dig in with
Reckless Abandon