"Maybe I'm NOT Starving..."

Last weekend, five members of our confirmation class, two friends from Our Saviour's UCC, and four adults went hungry. For 30 hours. More specifically, we participated in World Vision's 30-Hour Famine, a “a worldwide movement of students who are serious about serving God and fighting hunger—all on an empty stomach.” And we, just like 18% of our world's population (or 20% of U.S. children), we went hungry for a day. 

Now, it's not like we sat around and stared at each other for 24 hours, listening to our stomachs growl. We played games, watched videos about world hunger, visited tenants and served lunch at a local assisted living facility, and watched a fantastic documentary about hunger in the United States called "A Place at the Table" (go check it out!). By my observation, this documentary is what really hit home with our groups that weekend. By the time we sat down to watch it, we hadn't consumed anything--with the exception of some apple juice or grape juice--for about 26 hours. We had just served lunch to 40 senior citizens, and beef stew had NEVER smelled that good. As Thomas A. Dorsey sang, we were tired; we were weak; we were worn.

And while we dozed in and out of catnaps through the documentary, one thing became abundantly clear to us: we are not starving. We were hungry, sure. But for those of us locked in the church that weekend, we had taken solace in knowing that, once 6 p.m. rolled around, we'd have food from Fat Bruce's waiting for us. And some of us had been getting text messages asking what we'd want to eat at home after the unimaginable action of not eating had been completed. 

But you know what? Unfortunately, it isn't unimaginable. Nearly one billion people go hungry every day. In our own nation, the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, fifty million people--one in four children--don't know where their next meal is coming from. ONE IN FOUR. This enrages me. And this weekend, it shocked some of our youth, as well.  Praise God.

In our discovering injustices like this, a holy anger can develop. And I do believe it can be a holy anger. As we all know, learning doesn't always lead to happy celebrations. Sometimes, learning something new can open a Pandora's Box to the injustices of the world, imbalances among God's children, and complete breaches from what God has called us to do. Isaiah proclaimed this very same holy anger throughout his prophetic lifetime. God's word spoke through Isaiah, who called out to the people unaware of injustices in his time in this way:

Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke? 
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 
if you offer your food to the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
   and your gloom be like the noonday. 
The Lord will guide you continually,
   and satisfy your needs in parched places,
   and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
   like a spring of water,
   whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58:6-7, 10-11)

What is the fast we choose? Is it to share our food with the hungry? Is it to satisfy the needs of those who are really hurting? And what does it really mean to do those things? Over the course of the weekend, we spoke about what it might mean for us--and by all means, talk with the youth about their thoughts coming out of the weekend! They'd be happy to share. But these are demands that we should all be taking under consideration. 

What is the fast that you choose?