How can you eat at a time like this?

Just before dawn, Paul begged them all to eat some food: ‘You have been waiting for fourteen days now, and all this time you’ve not eaten a thing. I beg you, then, eat some food; you need it in order to survive. Not even a hair of your heads will be lost.’ After saying this, Paul took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, broke it, and began to eat. They took courage, and every one of them also ate some food. (verses 33-36)

Read Acts 27:27-44

When the seas are rough and your stomach is churning as violently as the waves, you can’t think of food. When you’re nervous or deeply grieved by death or loss, you can’t bring yourself to eat. But here, in the midst of the turmoil of the sea and fearful emotions, Paul sits down to eat. How can he think of his stomach at a time like this?

He can eat because he has hope and faith. By giving thanks to God, he bears witness to his hope that God will save him. By eating he bears witness to his faith that he will live. By not eating, the people on the ship were showing that they had given up on life. When they eat, they show they have hope for the future.

Paul’s faith was well placed; they were all saved. As you journey on troubled seas on God’s ‘ship’ of the church, you too can eat and drink confidently, even when the turmoil of life surrounds you. You can do this because you have God’s promise that he will save all those who have faith in him.

Dear heavenly Father, even when my troubles threaten to overcome me, help me to eat and drink in faith, knowing that you will give me eternal life with you. Amen.

by Stuart Kleinig, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)

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