Welcome to Abundant Love, an eight day email series exploring God’s rich love for us through Scripture and story. Today’s devotional was written by Erin Strybis.
“[Love] does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful” (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Reflection
When I was in my twenties, you might have dubbed me the Queen of Resolutions. Habits writer Gretchen Rubin was my guru, and, like her, I believed I could resolve my way to a happier life.
Year after year, my resolutions looked something like this:
Lose 10 lbs!
Eat CLEAN food (no gluten, no sugar)
Workout 6x/week
Drink more H2O
No matter how many miles I logged or calories I counted, it was never enough. When I, inevitably, slipped up with a resolution, I spiraled into self-resentment.
As a Lutheran, I believe in Martin Luther’s insistence that “faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace” through Jesus Christ. Yet, when it came to my body, there was a disconnect. I demanded perfection. At one point, my fixation with food was so distorted I feared receiving Communion bread, the very body of Christ himself.
God desires to nourish us, so much so that God sent God’s only son Jesus — “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6) — to die for us so that we might have abundant life. Our God is a God who is preoccupied not by our failures but with our emptiness; God longs to fill our hungry hearts with spiritual sustenance.
When we gather at the Lord’s Table to receive Christ’s body and blood, we celebrate our God who nourishes us with redemptive love. “We take a miniature sip of wine and a small bite of wafer and we call this God’s abundance,” writes Lauren Winner in Wearing God. “I believe by regularly proclaiming that God’s abundance can be found in something small we are gradually retooling our understanding of what is truly necessary for life.”
The old me, the Queen of Resolutions? My story didn’t change until I fell to my knees and surrendered my old way of living to God. The moment wasn’t some revival, rather the first step in gradual healing, in a journey back to God that began with admitting my need.
Years later, I traveled to Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains known, among other things, for its homemade bread. Surrounded by villagers in the dining hall, I savored fresh wheat bread slathered in peanut butter; chewy pretzel rolls sprinkled with sea salt; and flaky, French bread with a pat of butter. We dined together, worshiped together, communed together. In this space, bread was love and love was God, and I ate of it gratefully.
Beloved, there is a place waiting for you at God’s table. Come, as you are, made in God’s in image. Drop your old ways of living and your resolutions. Drop to your knees — and be fed.
To ponder
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus said. “whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).
Practice
Create a nourishing meal to share with your loved ones. Say a word of grace before you dine together. Praise God, the One who fills our empty hearts with unending love.
Prayer
Dear God,
When you knit me into my
mother’s womb, you blessed
every aspect of my being and
called it good.
When you breathed life into
my lungs, I cried out,
and you saw that I was fed.
Help me remember:
I am not defined by
numbers on a scale
“likes” on a post
my skin, my hair, the clothes I wear
my tidy home, my family size.
I am your gifted, beloved creation
I am a soul longing for connection
I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Amen.
Thanks for joining us for day three of your Abundant Love devotional.
We'll see you tomorrow for day four of our series: The God who delights in you.