STARVEDنموونە

Why We Need a Spiritual Diet Change

I stood in my kitchen, spices in hand, labels and words like “maltodextrin” and “disaccharide” swirling around me. I was a cocktail of anxiety, overwhelm, and exhaustion. Something needed to change.

My oldest son had just been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. The food that used to nourish him was no longer giving him the necessary nutrients. He had been eating, but he was starving.

And I had been pouring over research and diets and the Internet. We had chosen a complete and total diet change for my son. But my soul needed a complete and total spiritual diet change with it.

The process of replacing our typical foods with new recipes and foreign-to-us ingredients (like coconut flour and twenty-four-hour homemade yogurt) was daunting. But it starts with one ingredient at a time. And this change brought him into remission (for over four years now)! Praise God.

The same is true of our souls. We wake up hungry for validation, for unconditional love, for true connection. But what we might be feasting on could be starving our souls. Checking our phones 344 times a day (2022 Cell Phone Usage Stats) might be doing more harm than good. Feasting on our self-sufficiency brings more anxiety, not less. Replaying those shame stories is depleting the good narratives we need to thrive.

This reading plan looks at replacing five things we feast on with soul-nourishing narratives and simple practices.

Today’s Scripture is Isaiah 55 (the whole chapter!). In this chapter we find three movements:

1. COME. In Isaiah 55 God is calling us to come to Him four times in the first verse. He really wants us close!
2. EAT. God then implores us to eat what is good. To feast on His faithful covenant promised long ago, His tender mercy, and his generous forgiveness.
3. LIVE. This call is to come and eat what is good in order that our soul will live.

Let’s close with this breath prayer:

Exhale: God, I come to you . . .

Inhale: . . . Feed my soul.