Thoughts On Hunger

SAT., APR. 4, 1998, 12:47 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

Busy, busy, is that Baptist Church today, for it is the Hunger Sale within its walls. The money flows in for pre-used items and for food, and the proceeds go to help alleviate physical hunger, for this is a condition of today’s earth scene. Most people eat sufficiently to avoid hunger. Some number overeat, taking more than is needed, and thus food becomes part of disease processes. And then there are those who’s bellies have too little food to digest…and it is harmful to both health and life itself, as well as uncomfortable.

So this once-a-year Sale by church women of the community is a means of providing funds that will abate hunger in a few, through several means. It also is a way for some, more affluent, to bring in some unwanted items, so that others may benefit. It is a worthy cause, and the women participating, like Lenore, are serving Me, if they manage to realize this.

You had three choices, some minutes ago. You could stand around there, waiting for some chance for service. Or you could come to this quiet place and begin the addressing and mailing process for Our Ruminations (only slightly late). Or you could take this pad and an auxiliary pen and “come into My Presence”. Put another way, you could be part of the process that helps to lessen physical hunger, a minor cog, certainly… or you could get a number of Our Letters in the mail, to a few (among the many) who do truly hunger for opportunities such as this to hear from Me, in a world much more modern than that of the Scriptures… or you could diminish your own hunger for this spiritual food that I am quite frequently ready to share with you.

Any one of the choices would have been acceptable, even good. And remember, My dictum: if you’re doing something worthwhile, worry not about what you’re not doing. Making such choices is one of the potentially hard aspects of life for you who are “elite” and “near-elite” in the cultures of My world. As you are into one of these “times with the Spirit” you almost always feel that you have chosen well and wisely. In this instance you’ve chosen wisely because you have wasted many potential times of Teaching this week. You do have a hunger for these pages, for you have had so many experiences like this that have abated your hunger AND left you with a comfortable feeling of fullness.

Real physical hunger has been seldom yours to experience… and certainly nothing prolonged. You have a sense that hunger can be painful, both physically and emotionally, and spiritually also. Though you are not a personal expert on the “coming age” it seems to you… and to Me… that as the human population continues to grow, with no comparable increase in arable land hunger will become more prevalent, more common. There will be some attempts to alleviate this suffering – such as this Sale, year after year. Yet the numbers who shall feel such pains will increase, and it shall be harder, spiritually, to be regularly, comfortably well-fed.

Solutions to increasing hunger will be momentary… complex… and politically difficult. For you who “have” to share enough (in time and in amounts) will bring on other pains, and these shall not seem pleasant, either.

It is only symbolic that you plant and tend the garden you do. You can afford food, and you benefit, directly and indirectly, from what is cast into dumpsters. Yet it is important that you grow some of your own, so that you are a producer as well as a consumer. For you to see the present growth of your lawn as future food for animals as well as exercise for your body is pleasing to Me.