Meditation Metaphor: Three Hots & a Cot

Janie confessed one day that until the first time she went to prison, she had never in her young life been sure she would get to eat three meals in any one day and have a bed to sleep on at night.  To  her, three hots and a cot is a luxury.

In prison she has found her niche.  She's learned the institutional rules - both the official rules and the unwritten ones - and she knows how to get through her days without too many problems. She even has a circle of friends to make her life a little brighter.

Whenever she finishes a prison sentence and is released back out onto the streets, her outlook turns dismal.  She has difficulty seeing beyond the needs of the moment on her best days, and being out in the world only worsens her reasoning capabilities. The streets don't operate according to rigidly defined rules, leaving her with too many options requiring choices.

Before long, she makes one too many bad decisions and crosses the wrong lines, landing herself back inside the only place she feels comfortable.

Some might attribute the stark contrast to increased stress or the availability of drugs or alcohol. Those certainly play a factor.

But I'm pretty sure the key difference is the three hots and a cot.

The human body is designed to function best when fed regularly.  It requires daily recharging during a regular and comfortable sleep cycle.

When the body is deprived of regular nutrition and sleep, the mind also suffers. The results are never good.

The same dynamic holds true for our spiritual well-being.

Without regularly slowing down and spending time feeding on God's Word, my mind and soul suffers. For awhile I can rely on the reserve of Bible knowledge I've picked up over the years. At least once a week I go to church and the preacher gives me a spiritual meal that don't require any effort on my part.

It doesn't take long, though, for the spiritual hunger to drag me into looking for love and joy and peace in the wrong places. Breaking the downward spiral of bad decisions is hard.

Until something happens to knock me down to a place of desperation and I remember to look to God for nourishment. He's always there, a feast set before me on His table, holding a chair out for me.

I'll never understand why I keep snacking on the spiritual junk food of fast times and pop culture when there's a banquet table waiting for me.

You prepare a table before me
  in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
  my cup overflows.
    (Psalm 23:5)