All the believers devoted themselves...to sharing in meals

Ok, ok, I'll admit it: I like food and I like to eat.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I will follow by saying that I very much enjoy eating with others. Food and fellowship. They both start with the letter "f". It's fantastic.

I have been extremely blessed in the past two weeks to have been able to reconnect with some friends. To be more precise, seven rendezvous in the past ten days. Most of which either involved or featured a meal. Today I was reflecting on how pleasant it was to catch up with these wonderful people in my life and realized that I hadn't seen many of them in quite some time.

Busyness is the most common culprit, of course, but how many meals have I eaten in between meetings (suffice it to say, there have been several!). However, it's not always a matter of "not having time". You see, as an introvert, I often prefer solitude to fellowship. As a result of investing so much of my time in "ministry", I allowed some of my relationships to falter.

Enter: the goodness of YHWH. I haven't even started my sabbatical yet, and I have already reaped so many benefits of this new season that He has brought about in me. I am relearning the value of people and the value of relationships. He knows exactly what I need and when I need it.

So...who wants to eat?

My King

Moving has always given me an opportunity to declutter my life a bit. I must admit, I usually keep "things" longer than I should, but I do enjoy a periodic purging of unnecessary material. Today I found an article given to me by a friend about the crucifixion of Jesus written by C. Truman Davis.
As I read, I was once again overwhelmed with emotion as I remembered the incredible amount of pain that Jesus chose to endure for our sake. I am tempted to feel sympathetic towards Jesus, to feel bad for him. But Paul says that it was Jesus who "shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross" (Colossians 2:15, NLT). The cross was part of the plan all along. It was Jesus' victory lap. He made the world look foolish as they were mocking him. Jesus always wins.
This doesn't at all minimize the pain that Jesus went through. Let us not forget that he, like us, was human. I have great respect for this Messiah, this King who chose me. He paid a great price for us, we should consider it an honor to live for him.