"Jesus the Bread of Life" (John 6): What I learned from feasting

One of my recent "growth areas" has been in the area of joy. Joy is a tricky thing- you cannot teach joy, or command joy. There is no toggle switch for joy that you can force. And so growing in my capacity to experience joy requires a different kind of learning... the kind of learning you can only do with food.

Feasting is a special form of eating. I eat most of my lunches on my own, and it's a lazy process involving a microwave and leftovers. However, sometimes I get the opportunity to feast. Feasting involves two different aspects- people and carefully prepared food. Feasting is not about expensive food or massive quantity of food, it's about food that's prepared and food that's shared.

The key skill of feasting is the skill of savoring. There is a gulf of difference between chowing through food and savoring food. Most of the time, I chow down. But occasionally, I enjoy every bite.

Savoring is the skill we need to experience joy. Joy is a reflective skill. Joy is a lot more about how we encounter events of our lives than the events themselves. Stressful situations, at least many of them, are a part of life that we can't control. And we may not feel joy in the moment. We may not be able to feel joy in the moment. Joy comes when we savor even the difficult times of our lives and see the growth that took place, or the relationships deepened or the results. Sometimes even the nastiest fight, if savored properly, can produce the joy of moving past that fight and into greater understanding.

Some things are too heinous to ever be savored. Some things are so horrible that we can only savor that we survived them. And these things are real. They are also rare.

Written on the board in my office, I have my sense of purpose "I exist to have great conversations with people." I also have two questions: "What great conversations have I had today?" and "Did I receive them with joy?" Great conversations are not always energizing. Sometimes they are difficult and don't feel fruitful in the moment. However, it is God who creates the fruit, not me, and so I am trying to learn to savor even the most difficult moments to see God in the midst.

And that is what I learned from feasting.