30 Days of Tasting

Day 28

While I was making dinner, I suddenly lost my appetite. I was browning pork chops and went to the pantry to retrieve some brown rice. As I grabbed the bag, I heard a few little grains fall to the floor. Then when I started to open it, I made an unpleasant discovery—a small hole in the corner. I knew the culprit immediately. A mouse!

That’s when I lost my appetite. My stomach tightened and all of sudden nothing sounded good. Though I finished preparing dinner and ate it, it didn’t really taste so great. Some how the thought of a gross, dirty, little rodent crawling around my food just took away any interest in eating.

What is it that makes me lose my spiritual appetite? What spoils my desire for God and the motivation to keep tasting his goodness? Here are a few things that come to mind:

• Self-righteous, domineering, condescending Christians turn my spiritual appetite sour. I have had experience with some folks that fit that description. My encounters with them sometimes make it hard to be a Christian.
• When life feels unfair, I wonder where God is and why he isn’t more demonstrative. It can be hard to separate God from life—but they are not one in the same. Times when he/life lets me down, I tune him out.
• Fatigue makes me lose my appetite for God. When I get extremely tired and overwhelmed, I become weary of spiritual things. I just want to take a vacation from seeking after God.
• When I am full to the gullet with words and information, I want to turn off my spiritual receptors and put on my spiritual screen saver. Wah wah wah wah waaaah!
• When I perceive that God has let me down, I shut down, sulking because life hasn’t gone the way I think it should. No amount of reasoning helps. I tend to pull back and hope that God notices and comes looking for me.
  
  Well, that’s my honest list. What about you? What steals your spiritual appetite and makes your stomach knot? It might be good for you to put some words to what is holding you back.
  
  Until tomorrow! Beth