Let's eat.

{Image borrowed from here}

I love the eating process.

All of it. Right down to doing the dishes afterwards (this is a VERY new development that might have it's own post at some point). I love going to the grocery store and filling my cart with bright produce and creamy jars of half & half (you have to go to the uppity stores to find those). I love picking a meal from a mouth-watering picture from a recipe book (er, Pinterest) and then watch as my ingredients come alive in a pan. I love going out to eat. Crunching chips with salsa or dunking bread into oil while someone else is off cooking my dinner. I remember reading a statistic once about how many people in the world live off rice and beans for every meal. It was high. I'm thankful to have the resources to enjoy food the way that I do.

But unfortunately, I don't always take advantage of them. For example, the other day I stopped into Target to grab a few things. This wasn't my usual stroll through the store. I was running late, I was hungry and I had a sleeping baby with me. I swung my cart into the line at the food counter and hastily ordered a hot dog. I weaved in and out of the isles, navigating my red cart with one hand and scarfing down my ketchup-covered lunch with the other. In fifteen minutes, I was loading up my car with a still-sleeping infant and I had fended off my hunger successfully and quickly.

I eat like that more often than I'd like to admit. I don't think ahead and plan a good meal and the next thing you know, I'm shoveling spoonfuls of peanut butter in my mouth to avoid a huge blood sugar meltdown. And that's lunch.

My husband looks at food with a more serious, appreciative eye. He never rushes through a meal, even if it's from a drive-through. When he cooks, it's incredible. His signature dishes are hand-whipped chocolate soufflé, a 16 hour smoked pork shoulder (not including the time it takes to pull it apart for pulled pork sandwiches), and 20 hour smoked ribs. Twenty hours. I don't think I've ever done anything consecutively for twenty hours. When I eat one of Matt's meals, it's a feast. Every bite is worth savoring.

Whether I'm eating a questionable-looking hot dog or biting into a perfectly grilled steak, I'm meeting a need. But one is so, so much better than the other. I'm not condemning the consumption of fast food. I'm convinced you can enjoy quality time with someone in a booth at McDonald's if you want to. I'm just reminding myself that God calls us into a different pace of life than the world sets, and that it applies to everything, even our meals. But especially, our time with him. 

A couple weeks ago, my friend Melanie compared eating fast food to the way we read our Bibles. It really stuck with me. Too often, we rush to consume God's word and race through a couple verses or skim over a chapter. Like scarfing down a burger with one hand while you drive with the other. Then she talked about how we should be feasting on God's word instead. Consuming it with intention and savoring it. As a lover of food and God's word, that illustration has really stuck with me. My free time has become incredibly valuable to me as I spend most of my day meeting Taylor's six-month-old needs. I try to fit in time to read my Bible every day, usually during his first nap. On a good day, I sit at the table with a steamy cup of coffee, maybe a piece of toast, and indulge a chapter or two of whatever book I'm in. I read it twice, my pen underlining words and sentences that move me. Sometimes I can write a few pages in my journal. On really good days, I get a second cup of coffee in. But other times, times when my morning is full and Taylor has no interest in napping, if I get to my Bible, I practically skim over the words with no hope of retaining what I'm reading. 

No matter which way (or how much coffee is involved) I do it, I'm meeting a need; Bible-reading is getting accomplished. But the days when I pour over the words, I appreciate the wisdom that I'm reading. It sinks in and changes the type of person I'll be that day. It gives honor to God's very generous and gracious gift of his story, in print, in my hands. 

When you look in the Bible, you'll notice that very few things are rushed. The Israelites were in slavery for hundreds of years before God revealed a rescue plan. Jacob agreed to wait to marry Rachel for seven years. And then another unexpected seven. Jesus was on earth over thirty years before he started his ministry. God is slow, steady, intentional and patient. He asks us to be too. Why wouldn't we apply those attributes to our Bible reading?

Over the past couple of years, I've been studying the Old Testament with a friend. It has dramatically strengthened my understanding of God's love and faithfulness. The more familiar I am with God's history with Israel, the more my trust in him grows and even trickles down into my daily obedience to him. It didn't happen over night, it took consistent time in God's word.

Some days, all I have time for is reading a few verses off the Bible app on my phone. I think this is better than no Bible-reading at all, but it's nothing compared to deep, thought-provoking studying that propels my faith forward. And more often than not, I have the opportunity for the latter, but don't take it. As we approach the time of year when everything speeds up and blurs by, I'm feeling compelled to prioritize my time with God and, like a good meal with great people, abundantly enjoy it.