In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, “Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?”

32 He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”

33 The disciples were puzzled. “Who could have brought him food?”

34-35 Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. (The Message)

Once again the disciples took Jesus literally when He intended to be understood spiritually. What ‘nourished’ Jesus above all else was doing the will of God. Essentially He had come to earth to do one thing: the will of the Father who sent Him.

One preacher used a helpful analogy. He said something like this, ‘Imagine an artist working in his studio on some masterpiece. Someone brings him coffee and sandwiches for lunch. When they return, later in the day, to collect the empty cup and plate, they find the food and drink untouched. The artist has been so immersed in his work that he has lost touch with any other appetites. He has been lost in his painting; absorbed in his task, focussed on finishing the great work.’

‘The only way we can freely participate in a discernment process is if we trust that God is good, not merely as a general attribute but as it relates to us specifically. Many of us will need to work at getting this building block set in the foundation of our discernment process. In order to surrender to the discernment process, we need to go beyond intellectual assent to cultivating a deep, experiential knowledge that God’s will is the best thing that can happen to us under any circumstances.’ (Ruth Haley Barton, in ‘Pursuing God’s will together’)

PRAYER: Teach me Lord, to love your will, and warmly embrace it.