wholeness
What are you hungry for?
I recently read an article in a woman’s magazine with an excerpt from trendy new cookbook stating: “Food doesn’t need to be complicated to be good. You don’t need to work for days to create that feeling of wholeness. My friends say they want to make delicious food quickly and easily, but what are they really saying? What feeling are they seeking? A road map perhaps, for a way back to something. That warm wash of simplicity. It’s almost as if the more we pile on our plate (responsibility, work, children), the more deeply we long for the simpler aspects of life. But how can we achieve this balance? Good food at a table can provide the framework. Even if life isn’t easy--far from it--sitting down and enjoying a meal with people you really like can be. It should be.”
I agree with what she is trying to achieve: balance, wholeness, interior freedom that brings simplicity, and good feelings found only in community with others...
...but if you think that you will achieve this WHOLENESS by eating well...
you will forever be hungry.
You can’t buy WHOLENESS at Whole Foods, or the farmer’s market or anywhere else--no matter how organic, biodynamic or mindfully you eat. “Wellness” is not for sale.
Oh, that it twere so simple. “I’ll take a head of peace, a stalk of joy, a quart of love and pint of patience...make that a gallon.”
You can only find WHOLENESS in God. You can only find that “something” that the author can’t quite put her finger on in Jesus, because that “something” IS JESUS, and all He brings with Him in the form of His beloved, balanced, joyful, and power-packed Holy Spirit.
It is not new... trying to eat your way to wholeness. The ancient Scripture states this:
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the stalwart one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 4:9
Only God can satisfy our hungry souls. Taste and see...
2016 Holiday challenge! Instead of overindulging on earthly delights, or trying to find your balance by simply eating right, ask God to fill you to overflowing with Himself. I challenge you, go to daily Mass and/or the Adoration Chapel daily, even for just a few minutes, now through the end of the holidays and see if you are not a more balanced, peaceful, joyful, blessed, whole person by 2017.
I know you will say, “What! Are you kidding? During the HOLIDAYS!!!!??? Who has time for that?” Well, actually, millions of people MAKE time for that, daily. Why? Because filling ourselves with Him is what enables us to be and do so much more than we could ever be or do without Him.. Taste and see…
Wholeness = Shalom. God is Shalom. Taste and see…
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” John 6:35
Dear Lord,
I want WHOLENESS! I want Shalom! So I now see...I want You! Please come Lord and fill me to overflowing with Yourself. I need balance in my life. Help me to achieve the balance that You say is healthy for me, and that may be very different for me than it is for my neighbor or friend. Lord, I want to connect with You because Your word states that in You is fullness of life and true joy. I want that FULL life, the life of the Spirit. Come Holy Spirit Come! Let me taste and see that You are good! Inspire me to want to love and desire you more. Give me the grace to be able to get to You daily, help me make You a priority in my day. And then Lord, give me Yourself in full, for nothing else is worth the asking. I pray this now,
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
