Feed His Flock

Today I read 1 Peter 5 and I was struck by one of the early verses. In verse 2 Peter tells those who read that we should feed the flock, meaning those around us, but we should not do it by constraint, but rather we should do it willingly. Not as lords but rather as fellow Saints. This was interesting to me. I don't think many of us take the time out to make sure that we are all fed. It is not something we typically advertise and not something we typically look at. I can remember in college there was a period of about a month where my brother and I went hungry. Really hungry. I had a job working in the shipping department of the college bookstore and everyday on my lunch break all I could afford was a 25 cent pack of crackers. And that is all I would eat, sometimes all I would eat the entire day. But none of my friends or co-workers seemed to notice my lack of food. They just weren't paying attention, it's not something we typically pay attention to.

But we should. Food is one of the fundamentals that no one should be without. Especially not in America where everyday thousands of dollars of perfectly good food goes to waste. Another time in college when things were not quite so bad, I remember I had a meal plan but had not used it that day. I was riding the bus with my friend back from Wal-Mart and a man approached me asking if I had any spare change. I did not but I asked him if he was trying to get something to eat and he said he was. I told him that if he would come with me to the food court on campus I would use my meal plan to get him something to eat. He agreed but I think he thought I was putting him off because when our stop came up and I told him to come with me, he seemed surprised. But I was able to take him up and get him a hamburger with my meal plan that I had not used that day. My friend was Japanese and was quite shocked I would talk to the man at all let alone buy him some food.

We are so quick to judge why a person does not have food as opposed to focus on the fact that they don't have it. It doesn't matter if they don't have food because of wrong choices or because of hard times, God is not interested in why we don't help someone, only that we help them. King Benjamin said it best that we need to give if we have it and if we don't have it to give, we need to say in our hearts that we would give if we had it. There is more than enough resources in this world for everyone. They are just not spread evenly. This is done so that we can have a chance to serve our fellow man.

And this is with all kinds of help that we could offer. There is nothing I regret more in my life than one particular instance about 4 years ago. I was in Nauvoo for a wedding with my sister. My sister was the photographer for the wedding and we were running a little bit late. It was raining a little bit but not much and as we were driving to the Nauvoo temple, we saw a man pushing his pickup truck down the road, obviously the truck had problems. My sister asked if we should help him and I replied we did not have time and we passed him. I regret that decision every time I think of it. It was the wrong choice to make. I wish with all my heart that I could go back and help that man push his car. God puts people in our path so that we may help them. I fully expect when I die and stand before God that He will ask me why I did not help that man when I was put there to help him. I will not have an answer for God and I don't know what will happen. But I will never let it happen again.

My wife and I love to feed the missionaries. We love to help make their mission's more memorable for them. My mission was another time where, while I did not go hungry, I did not eat the best. One of the years for my Easter dinner, my companion and I had a package of ramen noodles that we took with us to church and ate after the 3 hour block of meetings. My wife had a brother who ran out of food on his mission. So both me and my wife love to make sure that no other missionary has to go hungry or repeat those situations. Our rule is, if you come to our house, you do not leave hungry or thirsty. We love to serve and love to share what we have, even if it is not much. You will be blessed if you share what you have and God will not let you or your family go hungry. He will bless you if you take care of His sheep. The scriptures say so and I believe them. Feed His sheep. Until tomorrow.