BREAD OF LIFE

Jesus claimed he was the Bread of Life.

Bread....sort of a daily supply.  Jesus is the provision of energy for our rigors from one day to the next.

Henri Nouwen points out an important twist to Jesus, communion bread, and us.  To identify the movements of the Spirit in our lives, I have found it helpful to use four words: taken, blessed, broken, and given.....These words also summarize my life as a Christian because I am called to become bread for the world: bread that is taken, blessed, broken, and given.

When we follow the Bread of Life we take on his traits.  So it is with our walk; taken, blessed, broken, and given.

TAKEN is reflective of one being chosen by God.  We are noticed for our special importance.  If we forget our chosenness, we become filled with inner voices of self-rejection which, in turn, leaves us without original purpose of serving others.  BLESSED affirms the truest part of our goodness.  The world hammers away with strong effort to put us down; yet we move about reflective of God's graceful buried treasure within us.

Everyone we know is BROKEN.  Our brokenness is as unique as our chosenness and our blessedness.  Hearts broken stimulate our search for oneness with others.  By Jesus body being broken, God was able to reach us for the same purpose (through our brokenness) to reach more of us.  Suffering is not one's obstacle to life; but purpose in it.

GIVEN is the grace we express by living for others.  We are TAKEN by the Potter to be constructed with the highest BLESSINGS that when we are BROKEN our true wonder is GIVEN to others.  Jesus is the composite of this truth.  Nouwen wrote, Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving.

So good morning you!  May your walk today leave the aroma of freshly baked bread straight from heaven!  And, you thought you were simply headed out the door to be average.