Philomena wrote recently in "Let's Not Grow Up" about trying to remember a time when she was compelled to do something she didn't want to do. She and 6 others couldn't recall a time when they were compelled to do something. Fascinating.
I agree with her that it is a reflection of the culture we live in. It's mind boggling how free of discomfort, pain and compulsion our lives often are. We are spoiled beyond belief. Think instead of people in the Himalayas of Nepal who must walk days to another village carrying everything on their back. Think of the street urchins in Mexico City who dig through the garbage dumps to eat other's trash. In many cultures, there's nothing BUT compulsion -- they have to endure incredible suffering or they will, simply, die.
We recently had missionaries to Mongolia over for dinner. They shared two things that got my attention. First, when people stop by unannounced (as they often do in Mongolia), the family they visit is expected to feed them. "What if they don't have enough food for the unexpected guests?" I asked. Our friend said, "Then the hosts don't eat." The other interesting observation was that many Mongolian families buy their food at the end of the month when they are paid, and it often runs out before the end of the next month. I was fascinated to learn that they just don't eat (or... they go to their friends' houses who -- as we noted -- would be compelled to serve them!)
I literally can't imagine how my children would react if I just said, "We're out of food, guys. You'll have to wait a couple of days until the paycheck comes in." My kids aren't able to go an hour without eating, it seems! And how would they react if people showed up at 6:00, and I gave my kids' dinner to them? Not well, I'm afraid.
All this to say, we are blessed. Incredibly so, and God is to be praised for this. But with this blessing comes some issues. We are far too "soft" because we rarely if EVER have to endure hardship. I'm troubled by this -- first for myself, but then for my children, and finally for our nation. I believe there may be serious repercussions in the future because of our lack of suffering. More on this to come, but just some food for thought for now.
Best,
Lucy
Thanks Lucy.
This is such a hard thing to dwell on. Do we want good things? Yes. Do we want to suffer? No. If suffering is good for us, how should be feel about that? I'm sure the people in Mongolia would envy our lifestyle, but they are stronger people for enduring theirs.
Posted by: Philomena | February 12, 2008 at 12:52 PM
In my travels and talking to others about theirs, I can include in the list of 'countries where one serves ones best to guests to the point of going hungry': Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa.
We have just started having our 7 year old daughter fast from food and drink before Communion (from midnight the night before to about 10:30am). Yes, she feels hunger pains. And we talk to her about 'hungering and thirsting for righteousness', and the spiritual reasons for fasting. The first step towards taming the passions is starving them. The first step in starving them is denying oneself the easy things - like food.
If one fears suffering, a good place to start overcoming that fear is seeing that one will not die in going hungry for an extra two hours. I do not mean to sound glib - it really does make a difference and one really does need to start small.
Beth
[email protected]
Posted by: beth | February 12, 2008 at 05:27 PM
Thank you, Beth. This is an outstanding example of a specific thing we can do to "taste" suffering, so to speak, and also, to teach our children this concept. It seems small, but for those of us with full stomachs, it seems big too. What a wonderful idea.
Posted by: Lucy | February 12, 2008 at 05:38 PM
Lent is a nice time to fire up a fasting program.
Lucy, enjoyed your use of "food for thought" at the end of the post! Glad we have this type of food too. Thanks for your contributions!
Thomas More
Posted by: Thomas More | February 13, 2008 at 09:36 AM