A couple weeks ago, there was an incident involving Robert, myself, Holly Lewis, and the blue truck of death. The incident itself wasn't important - what was is that our trip involved going to Andover about lunch time, and that could only mean one thing. Fudds!

You see, sooner or later a bunch of us are going to make a trip there and for research purposes Robert and I sacrificed some of our valuable time in making sure they were still in business, that the food was still high quality, etc. Neither of us verified the one pound burger they sell is still at the standard of goodness it has been in the past, so I suppose that will require additional sacrifice and field work.

But while we were there, Robert mentioned bulletins. I distinctly remember him bringing it up and not me -- for once. In any case, he wondered how I could write them week after week and I pointed out to him that our God, who makes all things and is in all things, is everywhere and interacts with us constantly. Since he is "never far from us" I think we can see him if only we look. Since we were holding research material right there in our hands - hamburgers -- I said hey how about these?

God has made us with a desire for food. We get hungry, and we know what the solution is. Imagine if we never got hungry, that food and the idea of eating just repelled us, and that we somehow were able to ignore physical hunger pangs. We would waste away and die. Our creator made us redundant in this regard. We want the food. Our bodies demand the food. There are physical consequences if we eat the wrong stuff, or if we refuse to eat at all. No one I have ever heard claims we evolved this way; it is simply the nature of every healthy life form.

So imagine eating one honkin' big Fudd's one pound burger once a week. Likely that would more than satisfy you at the time. And because of this maybe you could cruise through Monday and even stretch past Tuesday without eating. But suppose you ONLY eat on Sundays. That's a long time to go. Your body would rebel, never mind you would have to beat your natural desire into submission to ignore your desire for food. Then finally Sunday comes and you gorge yourself again. Not a real healthy lifestyle is it?

Where is God in all of this? God is a spirit, so consider the spiritual side. God made us with a desire towards our creator. All societies search for their meaning, for God. Many of us desire God in our lives who know exactly what that solution is, the bible. We would edjamakate ourselves to think any other way, and some do. Ignoring the moral lessons God has for us, we choose unhealthy lives of divorce, drugs, crime, SELF, and then become angry when we face real, physical consequences. While we don't always recognize it, there is redundancy. Our society shames much of sinful living. Our own bibles tell us how to live. Most parents try to guide us. History tells us lessons of right and wrong. But some folks are persistent to live unhealthy lives, and they eat unhealthy spiritual food, too. There are consequences!

But as Christians, we have it all worked out, right? We go to church and stuff ourselves full of bible teachings. But then because we are "full" I guess many skip the "evening meal" come Sunday night. I guess some are so full of the word that they don't even need a mid-week snack on Wednesday night. Yes, the love of God isn't really shown in these lives but folks learn to beat down their conscience until it just seems normal. Perhaps they read their bibles on their own. Great! But where's the edification of saints, the filling up on zeal and good works, the sharing of the gospel?

It doesn't take a lot of research to figure out this isn't a real healthy lifestyle for our souls. Perhaps the real studying some might do is to consider what the lack of attendance teaches others, such as their children, and then figure out what it means to hunger and thirst after righteousness. No one has to teach us to be addicted to physical food. I sure do wish more would feel the same way about spiritual food!

Randy