Am I Trusting God?

Last fall our church did a big campaign to encourage everyone to join a small group and we were all studying Gospel in Life together at the same time. The sermons related to the lessons that we were reading and discussing in our small groups. It was a great time of growth and community building for me. One of the things that stood out to many of us was the idea of IDOLS. We have all likely heard a lot about MONEY as an idol (You cannot serve both God and Money - Matthew 6:24), but an idol is really anything that we place before God. Anything that we give a higher priority in our life or depend on more than we depend on God. In examining my own life I began to realize just how much of my time was spent on FOOD. Not just eating it, but researching, planning, preparing, shopping, blogging, Facebook status updates, etc. Was food replacing my time and need for God? If you have been following my blog from the beginning, you may have noticed my few month hiatus back in the fall. It was partly so that I could get a handle on this notion and make sure that God really was my priority and that my family was next and food came somewhere after that.

So, I thought I had this thing somewhat figured out and a better balance in my life. Especially with meal planning and shopping for 2+ weeks at a time, this has freed up my time, energy, thoughts, etc. to focus my attention on other things.  Then, this morning as part of my Lent study I read Matthew 6. When I got to the section on "Do Not Worry" I started to realize that I've been placing more of my trust in organic, local, "Real Food" than I have on God. If we are in a season in our lives where we need to conserve as much money as possible to pay off our debt, then I should trust that God can provide the nutrition our bodies need from the food that we are able to afford. Although I like the idea of eating all local, organic, grassfed, antibiotic and hormone free, raw, fresh, homemade, preservative free, devoid of high fructose corn syrup and other man-made chemicals, etc. we cannot afford to eat that way all the time at this moment in our lives. It's okay for us to buy convenience foods every now and again, especially if they make us happy and life a bit easier. I still prefer a fresh homemade salad to one from a fast food place, but if that is all I have energy for, then God can and will take care of the rest!

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"  Matthew 6:25-27