Perpetual Feast

I just returned from the most amazing weekend. I attended the workshop at Sunset in Lubbock. As we arrived early on Friday morning, and I saw all the cars in the parking lot, my heart rate immediately increased. The anticipation began to build because I knew what a feast was in store for me and I was excited!!
Workshops are wonderful! After living in Lubbock for many years, attending the School of Preaching, and later teaching in the women's program there, Sunset, is especially dear to my heart. I have participated in many workshops in that place and came with high expectations. I was not disappointed. The workshop offered many classes, many opportunities to have your soul fed. There was a vast smorgasboard and one could choose the class and topic and speaker they felt would best satisfy their hunger. In between sessions, there was a bounty of wisdom and encouragement available for any who sought it. Present were Sunset Instructors, having trained preachers and preachers wives for decades. There were missionaries, back from the field, ready to share both successes and struggles, hungry for the morsel that would recharge their spirits and ready their souls to return to the work. They brought with them a love for their mission and a desire to share that love with any who would listen. Also in attendance, were ministers and their wives from this country and others, some in big city works and others from rural congregations, all of them taking a weekend sabbatical to come and refuel. Their love for their work, was evident in their faces as they spoke of the members, the growth, the new ideas from back home. The joy in their faces as they greeted former classmates and instructors was a beautiful portrait of the love God's people have for one another. Then there were Sunset students attending, setting up booths, in hopeful anticipation of graduation and heading off to their fields, here and abroad. And, there were the Sunset Church of Christ members, ever faithful in their support of the school, ever encouraging in their words and their actions, humble and proud at the same time, humbled by the far reaching effects of "their" ministry (SIBI) and proud of those who had walked their halls, gained the education, gone into the field and had returned for this weekend, filled with gratitude and love for ministry. The singing was beautiful, the lessons inspiring, and the fellowship amazing, and there was love everywhere. I tell you it was a veritable spiritual feast.

I came away, full and satisfied, spiritually recharged and ready to do whatever God would have me do. I love feeling that way and wished it would last forever. As I thought about this, it occurred to me as I attempted to take all this in, that for sometime, I had been almost fasting spiritually. Sure, I spent time in the Word, as I prepared for the classes I teach at church or the workshops I am speaking at. And, I attended church events and services. I talked to christians on the phone. And I even did a devotional blog. But having spent two days in the Word, surrounded by God's people, fellowshipping with His children, too busy to even watch the news, I realized how hungry my soul has been. I realized I had allowed the Spirit, the Word, to feed me only enough to keep me alive. The sad thing was, I could have taken in so much more. I could have taken in enough to thrive rather than merely survive. It was always there, I just hadn't taken advantage of it. And so, with penitent heart, I have made a commitment to feast on God's Word and the rich blessing of Christian fellowship more . I will make more opportunities to talk with God and His people. I will put forth the effort to be more encouraging and more spiritual so that others can be fed, too. I will do my part to perpetuate the spiritual feast so that all can be filled and refueled. And to quote Scarlet O'Hara, "I will never go hungry again!"

May you all be filled,
Neva