There is an old adage we know, but we often mess it up. Why? We don’t understand the words, or the logic behind it. [Source] It’s not that we are locked up with the idea that we should feed the beast, but it sure makes me pause to think about the meaning of the phrase:
“Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever” ~John Withals, 1574
The thought was that a “cold” required fuel, so let’s put food into the body. On the flip side, a “fever” meant the body had too much fuel already, so let’s starve it a little.
I woke this morning with the phrase pounding in my mind: “Feed The Beast” Suddenly, everything became crystal clear! It must have been my subconscious mind working through the midnight hour, but there is a validity to this thought.
It has nothing to do with COVID-19, Coronavirus, or whatever you want to call this Pandemic, but it does make me wonder if this is where the thought came from!
Think About It
If we want success, we know we must feed the engine of successful choices. From keeping our feet to the fire, our hands to the wheel, our mind in super activation mode, and the framework of production. We feed the beast!
When we are in need of an answer, we burn the midnight oil, ask a kazillion questions, dig in, dig it out, and “Eureka!”
Talk to any marketing manager and you learn that there are drip campaigns that steadily produce growth and access, but there are also blanket campaigns where you reach a great swath of potential buyers, sellers, or even voters.
Everything we do to grow requires we feed the beast.
Yet, the flip side also has a negative connotation. You’ve fed your appetite, and eventually you are saturated. What you have fed now consumes you. Whether food, bad habits, wrong choices, negative thinking, or whatever you imagine, feeding the wrong path takes you far from the right path.
This morning, the beast I’m thinking about is of a spiritual nature.
Spiritual Choices
We live in a co-existent state with sin. I would say that it’s harder to live in a sin-free environment because the beast of the world overwhelming the Christian and the Church on so many fronts.
The lines are blurred from attending a common worship service and feeling like we’ve been to a rock or blues concert. Listen to the preacher very long and it seems like much of what’s being shared is a commentary of how to fit in rather than to stand out. Watch the attendees and it’s like watching shoppers at a big box store, or it’s a glam fest where everyone is working on showing off.
The beast lines exist. Choose which one you feed, and you will become what you focus upon. In other words, the choice is yours.
God warned Cain that sin was at the door of his lodging and was crouching as a lion just waiting to consume.
“If you do well, won’t you be accepted?
But if you don’t do well, sin is lying outside your door ready to attack.
It wants to control you, but you must master it.””
Genesis 4:7 (GW)
John the Baptist understood his personal role. He was the forerunner, and not the main attraction. His job was to establish focus to Christ, and not upon himself.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 (KJV)
In other words, when it’s about me, I must feed the beast that will produce right choices and focus.
Help Me Here
I’ve toyed with the word “beast” and we should realize something important. This is not a bad word. It’s not the “big bad wolf” who is threatening to huff and puff and blow our house down! Rather, it’s that goal that you see before you that is of the utmost importance!
What’s the beast that you’ve been feeding?
For those who see a better cause, it’s the “Selfless” beast. For most of us it’s the “Selfish” beast!
The Apostle Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21 (KJV)) Understand it like this, his mission was his beast, and he was focused on feeding it so that he could help the new church grow and accomplish. But that was not his gain, nor his reward. That came from his time of dying.
Maybe he thought about it like this:
Feed the cold
(accomplish the Great Commission in a world that is not seemingly interested),
starve the fever
(the desire to leave and enjoy the presence of Christ).
What are we feeding today? Is there something we should be starving so that the right focus will be accomplished in this life, our family, spiritual and natural?
Go ahead! Name your beast?
What beast are we feeding today? Is it the better one to feed as a cold, or should we be starving it as a fever? Share on XBy the way… I’m now loading my video post to my YouTube channel (Michael Gurley)… Here’s my post corresponding to this blog. Thank you for watching and sharing.