What I Learned from Biscuits about Trust

The Sermon on the Mount is packed with good guidance.  I try to fast breakfast and lunch one day per week, which is what I would consider a beginner’s fast for a gluttonous guy like me.  I don’t like to talk about my fasting because The Sermon on the Mount says not to be showy when fasting because it is between you and God (Matthew 6:16-18).  I feel a bit uneasy talking about my fasting here, but I hope that the mention of it is seen as being told to bring glory to God.  I believe that stories told for the glory of God should be shared and not hidden.  I wouldn’t say that I’m any good at fasting anyway; I’ve been stuck on the beginner’s fast since the coronavirus pandemic started nearly three months ago.  

I decided when I began my weekly fast that I would accept food that was given to me by others and eat it even if I was fasting.  The food was their gift and I believe I would feel arrogant if I refused the gift.  Coincidentally, a coworker has been bringing me food about once a week, usually a sausage or chicken biscuit.  Though I’ve chosen different days to fast, this coworker has brought me food on the days that I’ve chosen to fast for at least the past four weeks.  He always seems to bring it to me late in the morning when I’m getting hungry, too.  It is as if God has put it on this man’s heart to give me some food so that I won’t be hungry.  Could that be?

I’m not fasting today, but I went grocery shopping this morning and didn’t have time to eat breakfast or pack a lunch before leaving for work.  Ironically, this same coworker brought me a bag of a half dozen biscuits to distribute this morning.  After distributing the biscuits to those who were here and wanted one, I was left with two biscuits.  One biscuit I ate for breakfast and the other I re-heated for lunch.  I’m not complaining, but how and why does this keep happening to me?

Even though I pray for provision from God at least daily, my skeptical mind doesn’t want to believe that God might be providing for me.  I don’t fully trust that the Lord is looking out for me even though He so obviously is.  Why, then, do I still worry?  Perhaps I should accept what Jesus says in The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:25-27.  It would appear that Jesus knew just what I needed to hear.

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”