Until we got Chloe, we had always practiced what pet owners know as “self-feeding.” You fill up the feed pan and a few days later, when you notice that it is finally empty, you fill it up again. Magdi always just ate what she needed to eat and no more, like most animals do. In spite of the fact that she was an athlete who worked off an incredible number of calories every day, she was never tempted to overeat.
Then came Chloe. We kept up with the “self-feeding” once she started eating adult food because we wanted to make sure she got enough. Magdi had a tendency to claim the feed pan as hers and guard it whether she was eating or not. But we should have realized when we stood over Chloe and looked down that she was getting plenty to eat. Instead of a straight line from her shoulders to her hind quarters, there was a significant bulge on each side. When we took her to the vet, the doctor strongly recommended a low calorie diet. Self-feeding does not work with Miss Piggy dining in the doghouse.
In just a couple of weeks of measured daily feeding she slimmed down. She was much more active, running with Magdi across the fields as they played, and tearing up the ground to greet Keith at the gate when he came home. She even leapt into the air chasing a bee a few weeks afterward and managed to get all four feet off the ground a foot or more. We no longer have a piglet with a cold wet black nose and a wagging tail.
God practices a sort of spiritual self-feeding. His word is available to us any time we want it. He has given us elders, wise leaders who see to our more formal spiritual meals, and who take that responsibility seriously. But we can reach into the “pantry” any time we want and snack to our hearts’ content. In fact, the shame is that instead of looking pleasantly plump in a spiritual sense, too many of us look like we have been on a fast. When I have labored over a meal for several hours and hardly anyone comes to the dinner table, and those few just pick at their meals, I get a little miffed. Don’t you suppose God does, too?
Now, more than any other time in history, and here, more than any other place in the world, we can study the Bible any time we want to. Where is our appreciation of the providence of God? Where is our hunger for the meat of the word? Have we filled ourselves up with the empty calories of pop culture and the simple carbs of modern philosophy to the point that we have no room for real food?
Take a moment today to examine what you are taking into your spirit, what you are filling your soul with, and determine to make a change in your spiritual diet. Jesus called himself the Bread of Life. Aren’t we interested in that life at all?
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread out of Heaven to eat. Jesus therefore said unto them, Amen and amen, I say unto you, It was not Moses who gave you bread out of Heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of Heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of Heaven, and gives life to the world. They said therefore to him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of Life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes on me shall never thirst, John 6:31-35.
Dene Ward
Then came Chloe. We kept up with the “self-feeding” once she started eating adult food because we wanted to make sure she got enough. Magdi had a tendency to claim the feed pan as hers and guard it whether she was eating or not. But we should have realized when we stood over Chloe and looked down that she was getting plenty to eat. Instead of a straight line from her shoulders to her hind quarters, there was a significant bulge on each side. When we took her to the vet, the doctor strongly recommended a low calorie diet. Self-feeding does not work with Miss Piggy dining in the doghouse.
In just a couple of weeks of measured daily feeding she slimmed down. She was much more active, running with Magdi across the fields as they played, and tearing up the ground to greet Keith at the gate when he came home. She even leapt into the air chasing a bee a few weeks afterward and managed to get all four feet off the ground a foot or more. We no longer have a piglet with a cold wet black nose and a wagging tail.
God practices a sort of spiritual self-feeding. His word is available to us any time we want it. He has given us elders, wise leaders who see to our more formal spiritual meals, and who take that responsibility seriously. But we can reach into the “pantry” any time we want and snack to our hearts’ content. In fact, the shame is that instead of looking pleasantly plump in a spiritual sense, too many of us look like we have been on a fast. When I have labored over a meal for several hours and hardly anyone comes to the dinner table, and those few just pick at their meals, I get a little miffed. Don’t you suppose God does, too?
Now, more than any other time in history, and here, more than any other place in the world, we can study the Bible any time we want to. Where is our appreciation of the providence of God? Where is our hunger for the meat of the word? Have we filled ourselves up with the empty calories of pop culture and the simple carbs of modern philosophy to the point that we have no room for real food?
Take a moment today to examine what you are taking into your spirit, what you are filling your soul with, and determine to make a change in your spiritual diet. Jesus called himself the Bread of Life. Aren’t we interested in that life at all?
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread out of Heaven to eat. Jesus therefore said unto them, Amen and amen, I say unto you, It was not Moses who gave you bread out of Heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of Heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of Heaven, and gives life to the world. They said therefore to him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of Life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes on me shall never thirst, John 6:31-35.
Dene Ward
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