A CALL TO DIE BOOK - Day 14

DAY 14: TOO FULL TO EAT?
DAY 14: TOO FULL TO EAT?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will
be filled. (Matt 5:6)
You and I are at the banquet table of God’s presence and truth, but
too often we are so full of junk that we’re not hungry. In actuality,
spiritually, we are starving to death. We have settled for garbage
instead of feasting on the nourishment God richly provides.
Chris Heurtz is a young man who is the head of Word Made Flesh
Ministries in India and all around Asia. This ministry provides shelters
for homeless people, those with AIDS, and those inflicted with other
diseases. Years ago when he was a college student, Chris went
to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa at the House of the Dying.
Calcutta and Mexico City are the largest cities in the world, but
Calcutta is the poorest. Most of the thirteen million people there are
destitute. Air pollution is oppressive. Poverty and disease are the way
of life-and death-for most people. Every morning city maintenance
workers find bodies on the sidewalk and in the street of those who died
during the night. At the House of the Dying, Chris’ job was to look for
dying people on the street and bring them in to give them a place
to die with dignity. Their goal was not to cure these people. It was to
give them a dignified place to die. Chris and his fellow workers lovingly
cared for them, gave them a good meal, and shared the Gospel with
them so they could die in peace.
In Calcutta, 70% of the homeless population have the lung disease of
tuberculosis. When you walk down the street, you find thousands of old
men and women coughing up their lungs. Day after day, hour after
hour. Chris’ ministry was to find those who had only hours or days to
live and invite them, “Come with me. I’ll give you a place to lie down.”
Upon arrival, their heads were shaved, and they were given a shower
and a bowl of hot food. Chris then replaced their ragged, soiled
clothes with clean ones. There, these men and women sat with other
dying people who coughed their lungs out into a jar that was passed
around. When it was full, the jar was thrown into the garbage with the
soiled clothes and infested hair.
Lepers came in with their flesh rotting and their noses, fingers, and
toes missing. Their clothes had the stink of rotted flesh. At the House of
the Dying, Chris and the other ministers washed these lepers’ skin and
gave them clean clothes to wear. The job of one of the workers was
to stick a syringe into their pus-filled sores and extract the poisonous
disease. Each syringe was used for person after person and day after
day until it was too dull to pierce skin. Then it was thrown into the
garbage can.
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DAY 14: TOO FULL TO EAT?
Children infected with AIDS, usually girls about four or five years old,
were brought to the House of the Dying. How did these little girls get
AIDS? By a blood transfusion? No. The dominant faith in India is the
Hindu religion. One sect of Hindus believes their men can get rid of
a sexually transmitted disease by sleeping with a virgin-that means a
four or five year-old child. Many children older than this are already
prostitutes. Chris Heurtz brought these children from the streets, and he
listened to their screams and weeping. Chris once said, “We prayed
the crying wouldn’t stop, because their crying meant they were still
alive.” Lepers, children with AIDS, men and women with terminal
tuberculosis-those were the ones Chris and his partners at the House
of the Dying looked for each day. That’s a far cry from our neat and
clean existence, isn’t it? At first, the disease and death would gross
anybody out, but after a while, Chris saw hurting people in desperate
need, not ugly people who interrupted his life.
Chris said, “One thing I begged not to do was taking out the garbage.
The stench was almost unbearable. Can you imagine the disease,
ragged clothing, and half-eaten food? I begged them not to ask
me to do it. It haunted me forever after the first time I took out the
garbage. As soon as we walked out the back door toward the dump,
children came out of the alleys and ripped open the bags to get
whatever was there. I yelled, `Don’t eat this garbage! It’s full of disease
and death!’ But they were so hungry that they ate garbage because
that was all they could find. They had no other choice. I wept as I saw
them scramble through the spilled jars of disease, the clothing stained
with rotten flesh, and used syringes, trying to get scraps of last night’s
dinner that a dying person didn’t eat.” Disturbing image, isn’t it?! But
in all honesty, how far are we from this spiritually? Can you see yourself
feasting at the dumpster of this world?
Many of us are like those kids scrambling for garbage. We elbow
each other at the mall, at the theatre, in the back seat, at home, at
work, on the net, and at school in our hunger for food, but the food
we lunge and fight for is rotten and diseased-and we eat it. We eat it
every time we fill our minds and hearts with sexually suggestive movies
or music, every time we make fun of somebody for whom Christ died,
every time we value the praise of people more than the praise of
God, every time we live to get revenge on someone who has hurt us,
and every time we try to put things in God’s place in our hearts. We
are so full of this junk that we aren’t hungry for the food that really
satisfies and nourishes. Sure, we may listen to a message or a song
about God, and that message has as much appeal as another bite of
pizza when we are so full we’re about to explode. Our souls are full of
so much garbage that we don’t even recognize our need for God’s
food.
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DAY 14: TOO FULL TO EAT?
It is a spiritual paradox that when we are thirsty for God and we drink,
he satisfies us and yet leaves us thirsting for him even more. When we
are hungry for God and eat his nourishing word, we are refreshingly
satisfied and yet we are hungry for much more. Augustine said, “You
have made us for yourself, 0 God, and our hearts are restless until they
find their rest in you.” This is the same perspective that the prophet
Jeremiah spoke:
“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s
delight, for I bear your name, 0 Lord God Almighty.” (Jer 15:16)
Eating requires intention, selection, and effort. We don’t eat by being
in the same room with food. We don’t take in the grace and truth of
God by being in a sanctuary or at a retreat. We have to take initiative
to eat because we recognize our need for the spiritual nourishment it
can provide. We also need to be very selective when sifting through
the options given to us by the world. Think of how many foods there
are in the grocery store. You have lots of options! You have lots of
options to eat spiritually, too-but remember, some of the foods you
eat will poison you. It takes effort. Hear, read, study, memorize, and
meditate on the word of God.
Jeremiah had one other insight about “eating God’s word.” He
realized that it only made sense for him to eat it because he bore
God’s name. We are God’s. We call ourselves “Christians.” We call
him Lord, Savior, Father, and Friend. In many places in the Scriptures,
we read that God provides a banquet for his people. God’s banquet
doesn’t have flat Coke and leftover Spaghetti-O’s! It has the finest,
richest, most delicious spiritual food we can ever eat! When we eat
it, we are filled with the love, peace, joy, and strength God richly
provides. Nothing even compares!
So why are we so content to keep running out in the alley to rip open
the garbage bags of this world to eat that poison? It just doesn’t make
sense.
-Be still. Listen to what God is saying to you.
1. Describe what you think Chris felt like when he watched those
children rip open the garbage to get scraps of food:
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DAY 14: TOO FULL TO EAT?
2. In your life, what are some things that promise to satisfy us but in
reality poison you? Have you experienced this poison in your own life?
Explain:
3. List all the sources of poison (or at least not nourishing spiritual/
emotional/relational food) around you:
4. Describe a time when God’s truth and grace was a “joy and a
delight to your heart”:
5. Where, when, and how can you make better selections about what
you feast on?
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DAY 14: TOO FULL TO EAT?
6. Read Jeremiah 15:16. Think about this verse, then use it as a guide
as you pray.
Memorize: Write Psalm 56:3-4 three times.
Lord, today you are calling me to die to selfish desires by:
You are calling me to obey in these areas:
You are calling me to intimacy with you by:
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