Comfort Food
We all have that special go-to food, that one thing that takes care of both our taste buds and hands us sympathy when we indulge ourselves with it. Comfort foods range all across the spectrum, ranging from the traditional ice cream bucket that I often find myself eating to interesting odd delicacies others might enjoy. I’ve always had a hunkering to run to ice cream when my mood turned sour, and many cartons have been enjoyed in both the best and worst of days.
Speaking of ice cream, I often get laughed at or mocked when I sprint out on an ice cream run. Ice cream is my weak point, my kryptonite, my Achilles Heel. One night I bought twelve cartons when I noticed a super good sale. My son Justin thought it so ridiculous that we needed a picture of the spectacle. In the event that anyone might catch me at State College, Pa, one would be laughing on the floor with my kids and wife alike as dad is checking out at the Penn State Creamery. I once caught them taking pictures of me unaware. I’ve often said that when the day comes that I’m a grandparent, I want to be named as the ice cream grandpa. I can’t wait to treat all the kiddos to a double scoop of moose tracks or butter pecan and hand them back to their parents, all sugared up. Ice cream just does it for me.
Well curiosity struck me, and so I looked up online what America’s top comfort foods might actually be. There were slight discrepancies, but generally speaking the results were in agreement. Pizza, grilled cheese, and macaroni are top favorites. My wife’s go-to is also close on the list. Her weakness is cheesy mashed potatoes, which doesn’t do a thing for me, but can comfort most any mood for her.
This week was a rough one for my family and I for many reasons. There was too much life to deal with, and we had no ice cream. It was a crisis of national proportion and emergency. I opened the freezer door to scan its contents for something that would work in my dire need. Concluding I would have to settle for something different, it was then, that I spied on the fourth shelf down, the priceless bag of breadcrumbs that my Italian Grandmother called “Christmas Soup.” It was leftover from this past Christmas gathering, a prized booty even a pirate would snatch and treasure, sitting on the shelf like cubes of pure gold bullion.
For those of you who have never had Christmas Soup, it is the one holiday tradition that my many cousins and I seem to have as an anchoring point to our relationship. Though Gram has long passed, we still gather once a year to celebrate the holidays as a big and extended family. We have our Christmas in a church hall due to our size, and gather to catch up with each other, spread holiday cheer, and feast on the ever coveted- Christmas Soup.
There really isn’t even anything to the soup itself. It is basically chicken broth that you pour over a bowl of egg-coated and baked croutons. The average person watching our feast might think we were easy to please with such a simple and inexpensive dish. But to us… it brings back childhood, moments lived at Gram’s house, and warmth to our bellies. To me, it also brings comfort.
I snatched the sacred bag of bread from the freezer door and made myself a cup of boiling broth to pour over the cubes. I waited in expectant bliss. I savored the aroma of such a pure staple of excellence, awaiting peace and tranquility to bathe over me with the first spoonful. Comfort was mine. I had succeeded.
But does comfort food really comfort?
I actually had the thoughts roll through my mind while enjoying my wonderful bowl of prized soup. How silly it really was. I had gone to the kitchen expecting to lift my mood and ease my stress by something as ridiculous as the item that I placed on my tongue’s taste buds. It sounds embarrassing just saying that out loud. With the knowledge that I was trying to cope with a situation by the food that entered my mouth, I realized that there was yet some truth to it. Is there a comfort food that actually brings comfort? My mind inhaled a whole new meaning to the term as the steamy soup was tasty to drink in.
In the book of John there were many hungry people looking for some food to satisfy them. Jesus took this opportunity to teach them something profound.
John 6:25-35 ESV
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Although the crowd gathered was coming to Jesus with the wrong motives (they only wanted their bellies filled), so many times we catch ourselves doing the exact same thing. We reach out to cope with a physical answer. A physical solution is most often the easiest one to grab. Some people reach for a bottle of booze. Some people cope with additions, porn, drugs, or attention. People experiment with coping strategies to take them to another place less daunting. Some people experience such a disturbing sense of pain inside that they would even put their own body out to the use and abuse of others just to get the attention of a man or woman in their life. Many times when we are hungry, sick, weak, hurt, in discomfort, or in some other form of pain, we reach out to the easiest coping mechanism there is to take hold of. Pain is real. We desperately scurry to find a fix to take it away. We as humans try to mask over the pain inside with things, people, activities, and other tactics of distraction. The thing is, in the short-term fix of the moment, many of these falsely famed solutions might seem to work. It might actually feel better in the moment to turn to a bottle or surf the web finding pictures that shouldn’t be looked at. But this is a temporary and insufficient attempt to solve the problem. Just like the crowd in this passage of the book of John, we try to fill our bellies with comfort food, not realizing there is something so much better ahead. We try our best, but we are still hungry in the end. Trying to cope with these well-used tactics is like trying to fix the need for open-heart surgery by simply putting a band-aid over one’s chest.
Over and over God’s Word (Jesus) has been likened to food. Spiritual food, the metaphorically explained sustenance of our spiritual souls, is needed much like the “daily bread” spoken of in Matthew 6:11. I like bread. I like multigrain and rye bread. I especially like bread either toasted with honey or dipped in a fancy oil and vinegar mix at a nice Italian restaurant. I have my Grandmother’s taste. In all seriousness though, if I can attest to anything, I can testify that God’s “Comfort Food” is the best in the business. There is a satisfying that only coming to the Lord and desiring the “bread” that He offers will provide. So many times in life I have had to rely on this bread. To place my hope and trust in Jesus and not ice cream, well… it’s a no-brainer. Here is why.
God will feed you!
Psalms 37:25-26 ESV
I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
He is ever lending generously,
and his children become a blessing.
Do you honestly think that our loving Heavenly Father is going to let His children go hungry? There’s no way! When a soul is truly desperate and earnestly looking to God for the answers in life, GOD WILL FEED HIM OR HER. It’s His nature. He can’t do anything but be Himself. There is no way that we will be seen as “begging for bread.”
Through the hardest times of my life I have been so down and out that there was not, or could not be, anything to “fix” me, or the awful state I was in. A drug would have only prolonged the inevitable of facing my problems. A drink would have only band-aided the situation until morning. Nope, there was nothing but the good-old Word of God to get me through. There have been many times in my life that I’ve stayed awake at night so broken that there are no words to explain or express the magnitude of my situation, or the level of dependence I placed in God. Many times I have been critically damaged with a blow from the enemy. There have been times that I have felt weak, or malnourished, or faint. In all these times and more, I can tell you that God’s Word neverdisappoints. Many nights, I came to the Lord in such a way desperation, a place of “needing Him,” that I didn’t even have to use words to express it. Some nights I couldn’t of used words. Sometimes God just needs to hold you and know your heart. It is enough to rest in Him. Many nights of pain resulted in me falling asleep with a Bible clenched against my chest. If you’ve never been there, you won’t understand, but sometimes you just need the security of all God’s promises tight against your heart.
I have news for the world. There is a much better comfort food than what the polls show! The comfort food that truly satisfies, is the bread that God has freely given to you and I. God the Father has given His son, so that we might partake of Him and be saved forevermore. The “Bread of Life” is that of Jesus Himself, broken and offered for you and I so that we can forever live in a blissful relationship with Him. In God alone is true comfort… and He doesn’t mind if we feast to the bursting point. Today's challenge is simple. Can you ditch the things in life that you have turned to in an attempt to ease your pain? Will you be willing to drop-kick the bottle, the internet, the drag, the taste of cheesy Mac and cheese so that God can take your burdens? Will we look to our own means of self-help and sustenance or submit to a God with a much better plan? Will we look to coping strategies that will never satisfy? My call to action is simple: let us reach out to the Lord and rely on the real comfort food He provides. Take a giant bite of what He offers, let it satisfy your every need. Instead of masking pain, let God take your pain. He is the best comfort food going.
That, is a comfort I’ll take any day!
After all, my favorite verse says it well:
"Taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8
By Chuck Carr