I’m a few days behind, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Day 26.

Our family attended Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA for several years.  We were blessed to be under the teaching of the amazing elders there and learned so much during our time with them.  I have been having a hard time putting into words their philosophy on eating and recreating as a gospel rhythm without plagiarizing them, so I’m just going to copy and paste what they have to say about it here.  They do a much better job than I could anyway.   It has completely changed my family’s view on what it means to eat a meal together.

We regularly eat meals with others to invite them into the community of God

Meals are a daily reminder of our common need for God and his faithfulness to provide both physically and spiritually. Our hunger and thirst remind us that we are not self-sufficient.  We have a need for food and water that must be met outside of ourselves. This physical need points our hearts to deeper spiritual needs–we have a hunger for intimacy, satisfaction, reconciliation, and more that can only truly be met by Jesus. He called himself both the Bread of Life and the Living Water–consuming him, taking him into you, means there’s a sense in which we will never be hungry or thirsty again.

Jesus called us to remember him and his sacrifice for us through a meal. When we eat together, we commune around this truth. We regularly eat meals with those not in our immediate family or circle of close friends, discipling them toward a life of dependence on God.

In the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, they had to make a decision of faith everytime they ate food.  Will we choose to trust God or choose our own way? God intended for them to face this choice, to exercise faith in him many times everyday–that opportunity to choose God was part of the goodness of the garden of Eden.

So as we eat meals many times a day, there are opportunities not only to thank God for our food but to thank him for Jesus and to commune with him, opportunities to let faith in Jesus affect everyday life.  There are few things we do more often and regularly than eating.  As we allow the gospel to change how we eat, the gospel breaks into everyday life and is proclaimed to those around us.

~Soma, Tacoma

Christmas, 2012
© stephanie l brown

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:46-47 (NIV)