Plain Hungry

Your alcoholic father
Your negligent mother
Your cheating husband
Your pocket-emptying wife
Your human praise addicted self

. . . needs NOT blame but nourishment.

Your prodigal son
Your rash daughter
Your bankrupt uncle
Your contentious aunt
Your entitled, ungrateful self

. . . needs NOT accusation but spiritual food.

We harbor resentment and nurse bitterness when it comes to others who have violated our sense of justice.
We practice self-loathing and binge on depression when we fail to meet our own standards of right and wrong.

Yet no matter how low anyone of us scores on the "goodness" test, Scripture recognizes that our wickedness is really spiritual hunger and thus invites us to eat:

     -  "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps 34:8).

     -  "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare" (Is 55:2).

     -  "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt 4:4).

     -  "Feed my lambs" (Jn 21:15).

The aim of the gospel is not to crush you and me under the load of guilt; shaming does not work, does not help, does nothing good. Rather, the gospel seeks to guide our grumbling stomachs to the gracious Kitchen of a Father who delights in saying:

Eat.
Feed.
Live.

Often, we mean well. We merely want to self-transcend, to become better than we are, to perform at a high level of "rightness" -- whatever that means. AND we demand the same or more from others. 

And so, we . . .

nag
label
argue
nitpick
bemoan
condemn

. . . leave no room for grace -- the vitamin ensuring spiritual growth in the bride of Christ.

Friend, here is a word of encouragement for today: 

Each time you and I lean toward applying blame and condemnation in any given situation (The Lord knows such circumstances are plenty in this world), might we learn to see that, with every temptation, Grace invites us to eat at Christ's banqueting table? Might our eyes be opened to see each flaw as a call to feed others and ourselves a full portion of the Word that never returns void? Might our minds yield to the understanding that our lifeline is the living Bread, the true Vine, the Way and the Truth and the Life?

And how do we eat except by hearing and heeding what is written in the Holy Word? (Rev 1:3)

Indeed, the Word Incarnate is the food that truly satisfies all hunger.