Skipping Meals

 August 5, 2023

It’s hard for me to understand Christians whose Bibles remain closed from Sunday to Sunday. Yesterday, my son Matt and I were on a fifteen-hour road trip to pick up his 1942 Harley WLA motorcycle from the shop in Virginia where we had taken it for assembly back in May. We had driven for seven hours the night before, getting to a hotel at 2:30 in the morning where we crashed for a few hours before resuming our trip in the morning. When I say we drove, it means Matt drove and I rode. Either way, it was a long trip.

We needed to get down and back as quickly as possible, which for me meant that I didn’t get my usual morning time in the Word and prayer. We both prayed along the way, especially as we drove through West Virginia through the night, where it seems we encountered deer around every curve in the road. I’ve never seen so many at once; we didn’t count, but we had to have passed 200 of them in the night, not one of which offered to jump in front of us, for which we gave continual thanks.

When we got to the shop (BTW, it’s Resurrection Cycle Works, owned and run by a devout Christian who is not the least bit shy about sharing his faith), I discovered to my great dismay that I had lost my checkbook. A quick call to the hotel confirmed that one of the cleaning staff found it and turned it in (Thank you, Jesus!). We could pick it up on the way back, but were faced with the problem of how to pay for the work Steve had done. He doesn’t take credit cards, and I didn’t have enough cash to cover the work, but then he asked if I had a PayPal account. Again, Thank you, Jesus! A few strokes on my phone, and we were in business.

But I still hadn’t time to read my Bible and pray as I usually do, and this morning, I could feel the emptiness creeping into my soul. I sat down to read and pray, and could feel God’s peace flooding over me. 

There are plenty of times I follow my routine and come away feeling, “Well, THAT didn’t accomplish much,” but regular prayerful reading of Scripture is like sitting down for a meal. I can’t say as I’ve ever felt stronger when I get up from the table, but I know if I were to eat but one meal each week, my body would soon begin to break down. Time with the Lord is like that; you might not feel better when you’re done, but you are definitely worse off when it’s neglected. I’m glad I don’t often have to make road trips like we had the last two days. And I’m even more glad I don’t have to skip my spiritual meals very often.