8 - 12 - 18 Strengthened by that Food

"Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"

This trip to Addis Ababa has been one of the more difficult experiences of my life. Fun, fulfilling, and something I will forever be grateful for to be sure, but nonetheless difficult.

The longest I had been out of the country before was only a week, and that was with seven people I was already friends with. Now I am come for two weeks, with just three people I’ve hardly known before we came, though I know better now.

The loneliness has been difficult, and only felt more so in boredom. When I am working on the sensors, riding around seeing Addis, or sitting in meetings, I am not aware of it. But when I return to my hotel room, alone, I remember my home, and everyone I love seven thousand miles away.

The locals that will walk with you on the street offer a false pretense of friendship. They will answer few questions about themselves, try to make themselves as agreeable to you as possible, tell you of strip clubs or parties or whatever else they perceive you might enjoy. I did not feel in fellowship on my walk, so much as being pitched. It is a friendliness that outwardly seems to be nothing but hospitality, but it is a car salesman kindness.

These conversations with those would be tour guides have only made me more lonely, as they don’t treat me as human. But seeing my skin and my dress, see me as a potential source of income.

To my great surprise and delight then I have found the lonely hours to be not so difficult as I thought. Temptation not so strong as I thought it would be. I have found in reading the Bible and listening to prayerful music and podcasts a comfort and strength I never needed back home.

The reading from First Kings says that before the angel brought Elijah nourishment he was at the point of death. I would not exaggerate so much in my case, but the testing of our strength produces an awareness of our need, an acknowledgment of our hunger and weakness.

Christ will lay the hearth cake and the jug of water in front of us in the form of His Word and the Eucharist. We must rise, make the intentional effort of coming to that table, and accept the gifts he has given us.

He offers this to us because he knows we need it for “the journey,” whatever that may be in our case.

Hearing this scripture proclaimed this morning made me cry, and the phrase, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" resonates in my heart still two hours later.

I thought to write out what it must be meaning to me, that I might understand it better, that I might bring this joy and comfort into other people’s lives, but I don’t believe I have quite gotten there.

It is still a mystery to me why these words have affected me so. Usually in explanation to myself I expand, I examine, I break open the scripture to see what has made it cleave me so deeply. But when I seek within myself the meaning of this command, all I hear is its repetition.

Rise, go to your God. Eat, be filled and “strengthened by that food,” and go on the journey that is your service to God.