Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures eternally that the Son of Man will give you. John 6:27
Does your attitude stink? Does everyone get on your nerves? Do you frown more than you smile? Do you cry more than you laugh? Do you attract people like flies that you call friends who only want to feed of the crap that you have or offer rather than the person that you are? It just may be that you are full of crap because you feed on crap.
I know that that is a strange place for us to begin, so let’s talk about something a bit more palatable and then come back to our crap later. BREAD!
Bread is a staple item on the menu of every cultural cuisine. In East Africa it is Chapati or Ugali, in Mexico it is a Tortilla, in West Africa it is Fufu, and in American Soul food it is corn bread or ho cakes. No matter where you go in the world bread is a definite stroke painted on the canvas of culinary art and taste. There is no Red Lobster without Cheddar Bisquets, no Reggae Hutt without Coco Bread, and no Saltgrass without a slice of wheat bread and an even spread of warm honey butter.
Bread is such a constant in culture that it is an ancient parable used to communicate God’s consistency. Jesus often referred to himself as The Bread of Life. He is fiber that is intricately woven into the fabric of our emotional, mental, and spiritual diets.
In John chapter six Jesus had a discussion with His disciples after He miraculously fed over 5,000 people with a two-piece fish dinner with five rolls on the side. After this great miracle they looked for Him only to find him in a distant place alone and set apart. Jesus told them that they were only looking for him because they were filled by the miracle that they had seen and how it had filled their stomachs. He told them not to hunger for food that spoils but for food that has an eternal shelf life.
They responded by asking Jesus what this food was that they should hunger for. He told them that, “He was what they were hungry for because He is the, The Bread of Life.”
As they continued in their ping-pong game of questions and responses the disciples finally asked Jesus to give them the manna from Heaven that their forefathers received. Jesus reminded them again that He was the bread that they were really hungry for. Nothing short of his virtue of love, truth, forgiveness, and compassion would satisfy their deepest desires. The old manna that their forefathers ate back when would not work to fill them for the right now.
The Disciples were Jewish and referenced manna when Jesus talked about supernatural bread because manna fell from Heaven to feed them in their past journey from the bondage of Egypt, through the wilderness, and toward the promised-land. This manna was weird because it spoiled everyday. It had a shelf life of 24 hours and would become a maggot filled and toxic mess after a day.
Jesus chastised them because they should not have hungered for the old manna that feed the people that they were in the wilderness. They needed to hunger for the bread of life to be filled as the people that they are. The food that fed them in their old life is now toxic waste in their emotional, mental, and spiritual bellies. It once was a culinary delight of the desert, but now it is the crap and spiritual filth. That manna has become manure.
Have you ever noticed that the emotional manna that used to satisfy you in a time of wilderness and transition no longer has the same fulfillment? That manna has become manure. In fact it rots away at our conscience and character in a way that it did not before our enlightenment and awareness. We progressively become full of old manna that becomes manure because we keep consuming our old habits and lifestyle choices that lays dormant in our conscience until it becomes spiritual filth. The Greek word for spiritual filth is Kakos, which linguistically evolved to become the Latin ca-ca. That is urban English vernacular for CRAP!
What does this manna that has become manure look like? Well… there is emotional, relational and social manna that becomes manure.
When faced with the wilderness of rejection and insult you used to cuss, fight, and scream and it worked well. It used to communicate your strength and your values, but now it has become emotionally toxic crap that chemically causes ulcers, high blood pressure, and hypertension. That old emotional manna is your new emotional manure.
Certain kind of men and women used to fall and fit right into place in your life, but now those kinds of people don’t have a place and don’t really fit anymore. You would shout hallelujah when it would rain bull headed and assertive men who flirted with other women, because you thought it was cute and that is just his way. Now you realize that bull crap for what it is and you can’t stand to smell it anymore. What we once considered relationship manna is now manure.
The club and the attention you would get there used to really validate you and make you feel important, but now the same spots with the same people disgust you and leave you $50.00 poorer and 50% more frustrated at the end of the night. That social joint and a glass of wine, has you less relaxed and more unsettled because your social manna of the past has become the social manure of your present.
In Philippians 3:8 Paul said to count the things of your past as crap and press toward God’s call on your future. This means that we must lose the bad habits and decision making that we can’t keep to gain a new life of purity and clarity. Move on from your old lives and use them as the crap that fertilizes your future and not the toxins that taint your present.
