United Fresno

In a week where we have given up food of some sort, have you really contemplated the power of food? Food is powerful, man. Make no mistake about it. It brings people together. It’s a way of bridging all kinds of people.

A couple of years ago, I was able to experience the power of food. I was in Vancouver on a mission trip, and we were given two sack lunches one day— one to eat and one to share with anyone we wanted to share with. It was on that day that I saw the power of food in a whole other dimension. I remember sitting on a sidewalk eating lunch with homeless man whose accent was so thick that I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. I remember just sitting there eating a sandwich, some fruit, and some juice with this man and realizing that, at least at that moment, we were both the same— just two guys whose stomachs were growling.

What opened the door to me being able to sit and talk with this man? Food.

You know, anyone can really do something like that. You don’t necessarily have to be a Christ-follower to eat with random people. But, the truth of it is that our city needs food of an entirely different sort. Look at the words of the Bible one more time:

“’[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and will heal their land’” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

The world has scars from all of our sin. Sin didn’t just mess up people’s chances at spending eternity with God. Sin has taken a toll on our world, on our land, on our city. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that things are a little out of whack in many corners of our city: poverty, crime, hopelessness, hunger, etc. Our land needs healing. Isn’t it amazing to know that God calls us to seek Him as the solution to these needs as well? God wants us to seek Him so that our land can be healed!

We’re definitely going to talk a lot about what that can look like at United Camp, but I think it would be awesome if we could prepare our hearts by praying for that healing to happen today:

“Father, I do want you to heal our land. I see the brokenness that is in our land. I see young lives that lack hope. I see the elderly that no longer dream. Father, I know that this is not as it should be. Father, I know that you want more for Your people than to just be satisfied with ‘doing church’; You call us to serve and love those who need Your love. Father, I humble myself and admit that oftentimes I am way more concerned about my own well-being than others’. Father, break my heart for where I live. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Amen.”