…and lunch of champions and dinner of champions and late-night snack of champions.
Yes, I had my fill of beans & rice. As all you WWC’ers know, last week our church had a fun little Rice & Beans challenge, going 1, 3, or 5 days eating only rice, beans, flatbread, and water. That’s it. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The point? To understand a little tiny bit better, how half the world lives. To understand what it means to eat without choice. We eat because of cravings, taste, to make us feel better. Most of the world has no choices, they eat (if they are fortunate enough to eat at all) in order to survive and fuel their bodies.
So I was actually all geared up for the challenge–you know me, I thrive on this kind of stuff. But apparently I needed some humbling, because day 1, all things aligned in a very unfortunate way and between packing up from our trip, being dehydrated, some hormone issues, no caffeine, and a 2 1/2 windy car ride with nothing but a little piece of flatbread in my stomach (I hadn’t had a chance to soak and cook our beans yet!), apparently everything went south, or perhaps I had the flu–but we stopped at Taco Del Mar to get our beans, and by the time we got home let’s just say everything was coming up in a horrible way–and it didn’t stop for 24 hours straight. Ugh. I really don’t think I’ve ever been that sick in my life. I was lying on my face on the bathroom floor crying because I thought my head was going to explode. ANYWAY, enough grossness!
So that was day 1. Day 2 just even the sight of rice and beans made me double over, so I figured I’d just stick to sipping some gatorade (ok, so I guess that was cheating but that’s the only way I could keep from throwing up). But by that evening my appetite was all back, and Jeff had been going strong, bless his heart, eating his beans and rice and even whipping up a batch of flat bread all by himself. He so inspired me that I had to join along. Dinner that night? Rice & beans.
So today was day 3 and it was pretty uneventful, thankfully. Yes, I got a little tired of having rice and beans all day, but I was so thankful to not be throwing up that it was actually not bad at all. We actually just finished tonight, and I celebrated by eating a bite of Heidi’s banana. OH GLORIOUS banana! It was SOO delicious. We are SO blessed to have fruits and vegetables!
So why am I telling you about this, and about being sick? Well, what kept ringing through my mind these last 3 days was that the point of all this was Understanding. To help us understand, just a little bit more, what the world experiences. And actually, every day of this little 3-day journey helped me understand a little bit, in a different way.
1. Beyond sick: The world without clean water. As I was lying on the floor, my head throbbing and unable to keep anything down, I just kept thinking how so many people around the world are always sick because they don’t have clean water. I was SO thirsty, but every time I tried to drink water it upset my stomach so much it made me throw-up. That struck me so profoundly in the The Hole in our Gospel, when Richard Stearns explained how not having clean water depletes your body to the point that you cannot do anything else. You are so sick and so completely in survival mode you cannot work, cannot try to start a new business or get educated or do anything.
As I lay on the floor, so sick, I kept thinking how I knew this would pass. I knew tomorrow I would be better. I knew I’d be able to get up, get dressed, take care of my children. But I cannot fathom the despair of knowing it won’t get any better. The water will continue to make me sick. I won’t be able to get up, won’t be able to get to school, won’t be able to care for my children (who are likely sicker than I am). Talk about despair. No wonder clean water brings such hope!
2. Day 2 was fine since I was so happy to just be upright. It helped me understand why people in third world countries are just so happy with every little thing. I was DELIGHTED to eat beans and rice, overjoyed to be able to eat anything! What a change in perspective…
3. Day 3, yes, beans and rice got a little old. I actually don’t mind it for lunch and dinner but eating beans for breakfast just wasn’t very cool. But again, what an eye-opener of how driven we are by our preferences.
I was also struck by how our modern lives even differ so much from those 50 years ago. While at the beach we discussed this Beans & Rice challenge, among other things, with my parents. My dad was telling me how his dad, growing up, ate oatmeal for breakfast every day. Yes, that makes sense, we do too. But then, the leftover oatmeal (and I dare say without brown sugar and raisins!), his mother would mash together in little dried oatmeal cakes, and that’s what they would take every day to school for lunch. I don’t know what they ate for dinner but probably something akin to rice & beans. Then even my dad was saying that when he was growing up, and they weren’t poor, he had two pair of pants, and his mother would sew them shirts out of potato sacks. Yes, shirts out of potato sacks. I looked over at my children who have clothes coming out of their ears. What a different world.
My heart in all this isn’t to lament over having nice things. I’m THANKFUL for the clothes that we have, the wonderful luxuries that we have. I’m just thankful for a little perspective, from a generation that lived a little bit different, but managed to survive just fine.
As a friend said today, we’re all just grappling with what it means individually, for each of us, to respond to God’s call on our lives to live simply, generously, to store up treasures in heaven. What that looks like for each of us will be different.
But as you grapple, I’d encourage you to try the Beans & Rice challenge for 1-5 days. It really is an eye-opening experience. And hey, you’ll save some money on groceries for the month. 🙂 Viva la legumes!