Born to Eat?

Here is an interesting question – were we born to eat? Or to ask the question another way, how important is eating?

I guess in some ways i’ve answered the question already by the way I’ve posed it.

Eating is important. But it is not all that there is to life. We have all heard the saying ‘eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die’. For if life was just about food, then that would be the best we could hope for – to eat, to be happy, and to die in the end.

So are we born to eat? No. Eating is something we must do if we are to continue to live, but it is not what we are here for. And now, let’s take it just a little further again.

How important is our work? Are we born to work?

Hmmm. Much trickier. In some ways, yes, we are born to work – to do a special work that God has called us to. If that work is to be an office worker, or a truck driver, or a street cleaner, then yes, we were born to do those things, because God has called us to do them. This is your ‘vocation’. Maybe you are called to be a pastor full time – or maybe you are called to be in a secular profession full time and minister in place. Either way, God has called you to something – to a place where you will be the most effective for His kingdom.

So are we born to work? If by work, you mean do something to earn some money so you can eat, then no.

But if you mean to fulfil God’s purpose and plan for you in this life, then yes, that is what you are born to.

And the final challenge? To keep that in perspective. We do not work to eat, but we work for God. Whether we work as a pastor or a truck driver, both of us do what God is calling us to do – to fulfil His purpose in this life, whatever that is.

So when you get up for work tomorrow morning (or today!), think of this – when we work it is not for us, it is not for food, it is not for our family, but it is for God that we work. The other things are good things, but they are secondary to our Lord and Saviour who has called us to our profession, and is using us, daily, to bring about His purpose in the world.

Matthew 6:25-33 (HCSB)
“This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you-you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

(photo flickr\globalmouser)