Hunger Pain

Hunger pain. Every human being has experienced it. Whether it is a crying baby hungry for mother’s milk or the embarrassing noise your stomach makes in the middle of your afternoon class, everyone knows the feeling of hunger.

Thankfully, the fridge is just a few steps away. Food is readily available. You want it fresh? Cooked? Fried? Deep fried? Steamed? Organic? Chopped? Blended? Extra hot? Smothered in chocolate? We got it. But how many have been hungry without the option to quench the pain, or even just the annoying mumbling of the stomach?

When I was in Meru, I learned that many of the people in this community were eating maybe once every other day. They feel hunger, but have not enough to satisfy.

More so, hunger results in more than a loud and pained stomach. Focus is lost. Food consumes the mind. Dreams are overridden by the thought of biting into anything of sustenance. Tempers are shortened. Loved ones around you are irritable and in pain. The pounding in your head keeps a beat with your slowed pulse. You are faint. Your child cries out “I’m hungry,” but you have no food. It kills you.

The widow in 1 Kings 17 knew this experience all too well. With nothing left but a handful of flour and a little bit of oil, she was preparing to make one last meal for her and her son. Then she would wait to die. But Elijah, who was at that time living in a dried brook due to the absence of rain, asked the widow to bring him bread and water. So the widow left and made what she could with what little she had left and fed Elijah.

Talk about sacrifice. She chose to skip her last meal to give to someone else who had a greater need—but also a greater hope.

But the story gets better! Elijah had declared the promise of the Lord that her flour and oil would not run empty. Because of the widow’s act of obedient sacrifice, her supply of flour and oil never ended. The widow, her son, and Elijah were all satisfied.

We can repeat the fast of this widow. We can give up a meal—a physical need—to meet the need of another. We cannot bring the victims of the Horn of Africa to our dinner tables, but we can sacrifice a meal and send the money to feed one who is hungry.

God is faithful to bless His obedient children. Grab a group of friends. Fast together. Give up one meal, two meals, four meals…whatever. Sacrifice a piece of your comfort and encourage one another along the way. It will stretch you in empathy, draw you nearer to God, and bring food to the hopeless and hungry. And God honors that.

“Is this not the fast that I choose…to share your bread with the hungry...If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually…” (Isaiah 58:6-7,10-11)