Hungry

Fredericksburg is hungry. 

Homelessness happens. It's a part of life. It's part of the system we live in.

I hate how passive that sounds. Because upon hearing it, upon typing it, it feels like there is nothing one can do about it. It is true, unfortunately, that hunger happens. But there is something that can be done about it. And it starts with you. 

In political science it's called a collective goods problem. No one believes that their input really effects anything and soon no one is doing anything. All I can give is a few cans of food. If everyone believes this, no one gives the few cans. And soon there are no cans. No food.

Such is the case in Fredericksburg. And suddenly it's not just hunger, the far off unbeatable idea. It's 3 miles away where the doors are literally closed at the food bank. It's 10 miles away where a child eats peanut butter for breakfast but is not complaining because he or she may not have anything for dinner. Maybe their mom should work harder for a job, you may say. Maybe she should. But for now she doesn't have food for her kids. She doesn't have time to be told how wrongly she has lived her life to this point. Don't you think she's thought about how she got there? What she could have done differently. She needs a break. She's starving for grace. Regret and worry fill the deepest part of her being when she asks my friend Abby where she can go to get food. The answer? Right now, not a whole lot of places in Fredericksburg. 

Poverty and hunger aren't far away concepts. As such they seem inevitable. If I would wake up and realize that these things are in my backyard, I'd probably also come to the conclusion that they aren't unavoidable. I have the amazing privilege of walking a half mile to Giant and picking up some good eats with relatively little reservation. That privilege could put a meal on the table for a family tonight. Or it could go wasted. And I could go on complaining about the Nest food. 

Heavenly Father, increase this burden you have planted in my heart tonight. Place it on this campus and on this community. 

"But just as you excel in everything-- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-- see that you also excel in this grace of giving."     -2 Corinthians 8:7

"On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine--

the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

the sheet that covers all nations;

he will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces;

he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.

The LORD has spoken" 

-Isaiah 25:6-8

Above all else tonight, God, I ask that you be peace in the lives of the people who have been turned away this week due to shortage. Whereas I have failed to reach out and offer food, I ask that you give those who are suffering tonight their fill. Nourish them physically. Give them hope. Wipe their tears. And wake me up to realize that I am how you do that. Physically, I am how you will reach them. Thank you, Lord, for those servants who have gone before me. Thank you for the ones who are giving so diligently of their time and resources to meet the needs of others. Bless their efforts tonight. And let me not truly be satisfied until I get that blessing from you as well. 

Thank you for my many blessings. For the bland sandwich or routine salad I will eat for lunch tomorrow at the Nest, I am so grateful. For the privilege of knowing where my next meal will come from, much less the ability to choose what it will be, I thank you. Where I am privileged, burden me with a strong and very real sense of responsibility. Thank you for your Son and that where we are weak, he is strong. Thank you for the fact that such a truth applies both to me as I sleep tonight and to the woman as she lies awake hungry. Use me to help her see that fact. Father God, meet needs tonight. We are hungry.