This week, as part of a challenge with many other people in my church, I'm experiencing something in a bit of a different way than I think I ever have before. That something is hunger. And yes, I do mean physical hunger.
The challenge was presented as a piece of a larger initiative at the church to raise awareness and support for the poorest of the poor. As much as half the population of the world lives on less than $2.oo a day. The idea is to eat how - and what - people with such limited resources must eat every day. As followers of Christ it is our duty and calling to care for those in need. This week, with very limited options for food choices and recommended portion sizes of a cup of food per meal, many of us who committed to it, are learning just a fraction of how intense their need truly is.
I haven't been talking or consciously thinking about this a whole lot. On purpose. I'm trying to just get through it. But it's a five day challenge and we're smack-dab in the middle of it. Now's the time for talking. Beans, rice, and chicken are getting old. There are the more than occasional hunger pains, but this week those pains don't send me in search of food. Instead they have been prompting me to pray. Not only for the dying children in Africa, Asia, and other far away places I may never see. But for myself and those like me who are spiritually hungry.
I thought I would make sacrifices with my diet this week and give some money to a greater cause at the end of the month, feed a few hungry kids on the other side of the world and be done. I didn't realize how much this process would affect my heart. My response to myself. My view of God. I can't say there are more positive or negative things yet - some of both. But if it's time to bring change to the way most of the world experiences hunger, I think I want to get on that train.
Back in college, in 2004 when blogging was hardly even a thing yet, I was here. Blogging before blogging meant anything to anyone. You can look in the archives for my past writings, but it was much more like a journal in the past. When we started fundraising, I messed around with the idea of launching something new for this new phase of our journey but actually hated that idea. I am a sum of all of my life and so much of it is here already. So I'm keeping it here. At least for now.
My main focus these days is blogging about our newest journey into the bizarre and wonderful world of gestational surrogacy. Posts dated 2013 and forward will trend heavily toward that journey. I don't promise everything I write will be about though. There might be other things that sneak in occasionally.
Please come along our journey with us. As the saying goes, "The more, the merrier!"
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