Starved

Jenny is an accomplished anchor woman at a metropolitan news station in Atlanta, Georgia. She has overcome her humble beginnings of being raised in a local project. As she watched her parents settle into their surroundings, she promised herself that she would never be like her parents and those who lived around her.

Jenny excelled in high school, using her current living conditions as her motivation to be better than her peers. She abhorred her housing project and everything in it. She did not have friends where she lived. She associated the people of her housing project with her troubled environment and wanted no affiliation with them.

During Jenny’s senior year of high school, she learned that she had been awarded a full scholarship to the University of Missouri at Columbia by the university’s journalism school. Jenny had made this her goal because Missouri was ranked number one in the country for its journalism school.  She couldn’t help but think to herself, “I made it out the projects!”

As Jenny blazed through college, she disassociated herself with those back home after acquiring friendships with people who had completely different upbringings. She wanted to forget her struggles and everything that reminded her of it. Her new life, made possible through her successes in college, had become her foundation and the center of her universe. The poor little girl from an Atlanta housing project now lived in a luxury, downtown Atlanta condo.

A few years went by and Jenny was not happy. She had a luxurious lifestyle, a great job and no cares in the world. She could not figure out why she was so unhappy or why she felt so alone. She began going out to clubs, but that only comforted her temporarily. She felt as though something within her was slowly dying, which caused pain that was unfamiliar to her.

One day, Jenny went to have a cup of coffee at the Starbucks located across the street from her condo building. As Jenny sat, a woman approached her and asked if she could sit with her. Without looking up, Jenny stretched her hand out, as to gesture “please do.”

When Jenny saw the woman, she realized that the woman had a familiar face. The woman smiled and said, “Hi Jenny, its Tonya! We grew up in the same housing project.” Any other time, this would have not made Jenny feel comfortable, but she found Tonya’s presence soothing.

As the two began to catch up, Jenny began to open up about her sadness that she had been experiencing. She told Tonya about her many accomplishments and her great job. She told Tonya about the privileged men she’s dated and her foreign travels with them. Tonya waited patiently as Jenny went on about her great life. After Jenny paused, Tonya interjected.

Before Tonya began talking, she took Jenny’s hands into her own. Tonya smiled, looking Jenny directly in the eyes as she said to her, “Clothes your eyes Jenny…”

Tonya began praying, asking that GOD guide her words as she speak His words to Jenny. As Tonya went on praying, Jenny felt her body warming up. As she was listening to Tonya’s prayer, she began thinking of the many times that she walked past Tonya in the projects without acknowledging her; she thought of the mother and father that she no longer communicated with; she thought of little girls in the projects that could have benefited from her mentorship and encouragement after returning from college; in that moment, tears poured from her eyes. GOD had opened Jenny’s eyes and released her pain through a steady stream of tears. Jenny was now ready to receive GOD’s words through Tonya.

Tonya told Jenny that the enemy had used her upbringing as a motivation to achieve things that gave no glory to GOD. "The enemy prepared a table before you, knowing that you would indulge in it due to your lack of privilege as a little girl; as the enemy anticipated, you ate from Satan’s table. After partaking of his feast, you became full of the world, thus nurturing everything that is not of GOD. You in the flesh became robust while simultaneously starving GOD’s spirit within you."

Tonya went on saying, “You see Jenny, when we fail to nourish GOD’s Holy Spirit within us, it begins to starve like our flesh without bread. As our flesh becomes weak without bread, so too does our inner spirit without the implementation of the Word of GOD into our spiritual diets.”

Brethren, we must nourish our spirit daily with the Word of GOD, lest our spirit wither in weakness. We are not equipped to battle the enemy if our spirit suffers from malnutrition. GOD has prepared a table before us; may all of our cups runneth over! Let’s eat brothers and sisters.

Bible verses for today:

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 

² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 

³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:1-4).’

Today’s prayer:

Our Father in Heaven, provide for us an endless feast of Your words and wisdom, that we may be forever strengthened in our battles with the enemy. Satan tempts us with the world, things that our flesh deeply desires. Strengthen our spirits O Lord, that we overcome our fleshly urges. In the name of Your Son Jesus, Amen…

By: C.D. McCloud