Give us our daily bread

This morning, my wife and I walked to Home Depot to look at doors. Our front door needs to be replaced. At the entrance to the parking lot of Home Depot, we saw two Hispanics waiting to be hired for any job. When we finished looking at doors, they were still there. Still jobless. It was noon by then.

As Annie and I walked home, because of my practice of lectio divina (Latin for holy reading, the monastic way of reading Scripture), I asked myself what is God showing me here? What's the wisdom, the teaching here? What am I invited to do?

And Jesus, as he was teaching the Apostles how to pray, saying "Give us this daily bread" came to mind. Those two guys, exposed to the cold, were embodying that phrase from the Lord's prayer, "Please, someone hire us, that we may have something to eat." While most of the time I eat unmindfully, forgetting that every 4 seconds or so, someone in the world dies from hunger. That's every time I inhale a person dies. Every time I exhale, someone dies from hunger. That's atrocious.

So what is God inviting me to do? First of all, to be mindful of how and what I eat and how it affects my health.  To give thanks to God, and to be thankful to everyone (farmers, harvesters, truckers, grocers, my employer) and the universe (sun, rain, earthworms, soil, air) for bringing this food to my table. I also started teaching Yoga for Hopelink at Studio Be in Kirkland, WA, every first and third Sundays of the month from 7 to 8:30pm to benefit Hopelink.

May all we do, think, and say, be for Love.

Amen.