COTW - FEED ME.

Food is amazing. I thank GOD for food every day. Burritos, pasta, calzones, broccoli beef, perogis - you name it, I love it. That's one of the things that I love most about Davis - the food options are numerous, and it's an awesome blessing to sit down and have a tasty meal with friends and family.

But here at camp, the food options are... limited. The dining hall plans out a week of meals for the guests, and they use the same meal every week. For the guests, who are here for one week and then leave, this is of no significance. But those of us staff who are here for 10 weeks, this reality is of greater significance. I don't think of myself to be a very picky eater, but eating the same camp food for ten weeks has been... interesting. Let me intercede at this point and say that GOD has been teaching me a lot about food this summer (I'll share some of those thoughts later), but one of the most significant realities that I have come to grasp is that there is a difference between what I want and what I need. The camp dining hall is by no means a 4-star restaurant, but I have never gone to sleep hungry - a statement that millions and millions of people around the world cannot make. That's the truth.

But in the midst of the week-to-week cycle of food, there were two weeks of heaven that came in the form of an amazingly generous family: the Prol family. For two weeks, they stayed in one of the units in camp that has a kitchen, and for lunch and dinner every day they left an open invitation for all of the staff to come and be fed. Kryne Prol (first name pronounced like "Brian," but with a "k"), the father of the family, would cook up amazing grub for anyone who was hungry, twice a day. It was amazing.

One day, he made perogis - pasta stuffed with mashed potatoes and cream cheese. I had never heard of them before, but apparently everyone else had - on that afternoon, there were over 80 people crowded around and in this dude's little abode, grubbing down on this delicious food. I was one of the first people there, and as I sat with my styrofoam plate in my lap, heaping with food, I looked with disdain as more and more people flooded into Mr. Prol's yard. I thought to myself, "There's not enough food for all of these people. Why are they here?" Staring down into my plate of food, my heart was hard with thoughts of greed and judgement. Looking up, I saw Mr. Prol, and I was brought to my knees with shame.

Mr. Prol was standing out beside the road, scanning the horizon for anyone who remotely looked like a staff member, waving them in like an air traffic controller to come partake in the feast. As I sat there, my sinful greed juxtaposed with his bottomless generosity, I was reminded that this is the reality of the Kingdom of GOD - there is enough for all of his children. In GOD's house there are many abiding places; in GOD's family, room for everyone to be covered in his love and forgiveness. In GOD's creation, there is enough for everyone - as Shane Claiborne observed in his book The Irresistible Revolution, "I'm convinced that God did not mess up and make too many people and not enough stuff. Poverty was created not by God but by you and me, because we have not learned to love our neighbors as ourselves."

I was reminded of Jesus' words in the parable of the generous landowner in Matthew 20: "Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?" (v. 15) Jesus, change my heart - bring me to a place where you are more than enough for me. Seen you soon.