You may know it, but I live it,
We are a product of our choices.
Some portions we’ve improved the odds
But others? We are stuck where we are.
I’m thinking of a friend
Who knows what a table should look like.
Everytime we sit, it’s “just right!”
Everything in place, and nothing is missing.
Me? I only make the table special on holidays. If then.
An article this morning gave me pause. I thought.
What if Our Daily Table represented our life?
What does your table look like?
Are we just getting by because we don’t create
For what we need or expect?
Life has been tipsy, turvy, and threatening clouds loom.
If ever there was a time to let things slip,
Perhaps it’s now. But I struggle.
My morning routine doesn’t like change!
Come to think of it,
There’s a fondness for keeping things the same.
Status Quo. Consistent. The same. Day in. Day out.
Maybe it’s a thing of age…or perhaps, sanity.
Jesus taught that the Bread we need to survive
Comes to us as “daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) or…
“Day, by day” the same bread. (Luke 11:3) or
“giving us daily our appointed bread.” (Literal translation)
The word for “day” means the time between dawn and dusk….
Now. Break the tradition. You need bread at night. Now what?
He teaches a lesson about someone needing bread by night.
And He said to them,
“Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
and he will answer from within and say,
‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed;
I cannot rise and give to you’?
I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend,
yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Luke 11:5-9 NKJV
Luke is a doctor…and obviously a writer and wordsmith.
The only place the Greek word for persistence is found is here.
Another translation calls it importunity.
Another translation puts it like this:
“…simply because you are not ashamed to keep on asking…”
Persistence. The Complete Jewish Bible calls it “hutzpah.”
I feel the urge to pray,
For someone who’s daily table has changed.
Their struggles make it so…
Is that you?
Maybe we are so easily satisfied with whatever comes our way.
Perhaps our backbone would be a little better strengthened,
If we more persistently ask for “Our Daily Bread on Our Daily Table.”