Dinner Time
By Grant Gaines
If you’re anything like me, it’s relatively easy to eat a nutritious meal when you’re not starving and have the time to prepare the dish. Of course the opposite is true also. When you’re in a rush, healthy eating habits quickly give way to a growling stomach, a rushed schedule, or whining kids.
It’s in those times when you’re “on the clock” that those golden arches from McDonalds seem to have a magnetic beam drawing you towards their drive through. Your decisions are no longer driven so much by calories or nutritional content as they are by convenience.
Let’s face it, when we’re in a rush we don’t make good eating decisions. How could we? We have no time to prepare the meal, set the table, eat the meal, and then clean the dishes. Life is far too demanding! We often times find ourselves, just like soldiers out on the battlefield, reaching for a quick bite of our M.R.E.’s (“Meals Ready to Eat”) before tackling the next project at home or at work.
This is how King David must have felt as he ruled over God’s chosen people of Israel. His task list was long and his days were short. Besides being a father and a husband, David carried the weight of making every major decision for the nation of Israel as well as being their Commander in Chief who accompanied the army in nearly every military campaign they embarked on. And with all of these high pressure “hats” that David wore came an incredible weight of stress that he carried with him everywhere he went.
Under pressure and on the clock. It’s in these circumstances where David found himself that we would often pass up on the dinner prep and simply grab the frozen pizza. But not David. David had a different approach to these trying times as can be seen from his ever famous Psalm 23 when he penned, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” (Psalm 23:5, NIV).
Evidently when you make the LORD your “Chef,” it’s always the right time for a feast…no matter your circumstances.
But David isn’t simply talking about physical food. He’s talking about a spiritual peace that enables you to comfortably sit in front of even your fiercest enemies amidst your most difficult trials while enjoying a seven course meal. He’s talking about a, “…peace that surpasses all understanding…” (Philippians 4:7, NIV) that you can only receive from the Lord. This is the type of confidence you can have when you follow the advice of the beginning of this Psalm by allowing the LORD to be your Shepherd (Psalm 23:1).
Really there are only two choices you can make regarding how you are going to handle those times when you, “…walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” (Psalm 23:4, NIV). You can either frantically scarf down your meal (panic, stress, and worry) or allow the Lord to serve you a seven course meal (rest in the hope that God is truly the sovereign LORD who is in control of this situation).
Are you feasting or frantically eating today?
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©Grant Gaines 2016
