I'm Starving

Not Really.  I often use this phrase when I am really hungry, but it is a load of crap.  If I was starving my belly would be bloated and I wouldn't have the energy to do my job or live my life.  So I'm not starving.  I'm uncomfortable and spoiled to the core.

This week our church is doing the 5 day food and water challenge. It sounds nice, but I have a love hate relationship with it.  For five days I will eat solely a sustenance diet, and I will do it for less than a dollar a day.  I will eat like the people who are truly on the verge of starvation, only I have the fat stores and Saturday to make up for it.  So my meals will be oatmeal for breakfast and rice and beans for lunch and dinner.  I can also drink tap water.

Thats it.

In years past I struggled more with lack of choices and the food "not sounding good" more so than being hungry.  By Friday last year I don't think I even wanted to eat because if I ate one more bean I would surely puke it up.  I find that I need the constant reminder of how good I have it because of where I was born.  Is there poverty in America, you bet, but there are also drinking fountains. I can go to my faucet and drink water without worrying if I will get sick from it.  I can open my cabinets and have multiple choices about what to make for dinner, and amazingly I usually don't want anything that I have (I usually want a hot fudge sundae from McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but that is an addiction that I can talk about another day)...Now I really want that sundae.  Dang it.

I'm salivating for fun.

So this week I will stand in solidarity with those who don't have a choice of meal.  Who eat to survive and because they are truly hungry.  I will get over myself this week and I will try to not get excited if I drop a few pounds doing it.  When I eat that sundae Friday at midnight, it might not taste so sweet anymore because I will remember that there are people out there who don't eat like this as a challenge, but rather because it is their life.  I hope and pray that God breaks my heart this week because His breaks on a daily basis for those who are truly starving. (Side note, whenever I type His I get that stupid Lady Gaga song in my head.  I'm glad she could ruin writing about God for me just like this challenge can ruin my love of hot fudge sundaes.)