FOOD WITH FAITH

A uniting force to be reckoned with

Have you noticed where you find most people standing around and conversing in parties, marriages, meetings and get togethers? It is always around food! There is a certain element to food that just leads you to fellowship, so much so that in many communities food and fellowship have become synonymous terms. You cannot have one without the other. Food brings people together and thus plays a vital role in our communities as a bonding force. They say about Indian cultural functions that even if things are not going well but then the food at the end was good, not many would complain. But if the food served at the end is not good, then even if everything else went perfect, people are gonna complain. That’s how important food is to the Indian community.

This deep connection we have with food seeps into our cultures and traditions too. We all have certain food items that are deeply associated with our festivals. For instance what is Eid without some biryani and kheer, or Holi without gujiya, or Onam without sandhya, or Christmas without cakes. Running through India’s rich and varied heritage is a uniting thread called food, because no matter how divided we may be on religion and culture, we tend to find a place of oneness in our love for food.

Food also has no boundaries. With a world ever so globalized, culture has become fluid, in that it is no longer confined to certain regions. And the greatest example of this is how we have access to any kind of food just about anywhere in the world! You could easily find a restaurant that served dosa and sambar in the heart of New York city just as easily as finding a bakery that sells New York Cheesecakes in New Delhi. You don’t have to fly to the Mediterranean region to try some Hummus and Pita, or to Italy for some Pizza, or to Mexico for Tacos. In the globalized world we live in, you could find most of these food items within a 15km radius in any major city. Food permeates boundaries, and so does faith. You could easily find a temple in London just as easily as you could find a church in Mumbai. Faith has no boundaries too. Now imagine a combination where these two highly permeable agents can work together. Wouldn’t it be a powerful tool for bringing people together?

The Bible has a beautiful running theme that constantly reminds us that we reap what we sow. This is not to suggest however that we do good in the fear that if we don’t then bad things will happen to us. On the contrary, the motive to sow into goodness is for the good of others. We are called to sow into people’s lives, to do good for others without expecting anything in return. Our reward may be in this life or it may not even be so. But our hope remains eternal when our faith is in Jesus.

This is the aim here, to do good through food. To reach out to the needy, to feed the hungry, to bless someone and to sow into someone’s life.