Spiritual Eating Disorders

"My name is Carla....and I am an overeater."
I use to go to these meetings back in the 80's called "Overeaters Anonymous" and every meeting you had to introduce yourself that way. This was a twelve step program fashioned after the very successful "Alcoholics Anonymous". Unfortunately, for me, it was NOT very successful.
Eating disorders are no longer a strange thing in our society. Overeating was acknowledged and dealt with, but back in the 70's and 80's many became more aware of other eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
But I'm beginning to see that eating disorders have taken on a whole other dimension. That is in the "spiritual" sense. I'm not talking about those church programs that help you lose weight, I'm talking about something different.
"Spiritual Eating Disorders" is what I call them.
For instance, in the past, I have been known to say, (concerning the church I was attending), "I'm not being fed."
I felt I needed MORE! I wanted MORE spiritual food. I was tired of the same old stuff. I had heard it all before and in different ways and felt that the pastors were not doing their jobs in "feeding" me.
I'm beginning to see, now, that I had a new eating disorder. I was a "spiritual" overeater. I just couldn't get enough. God was SO GOOD! (Oh taste and see?) I wanted to taste more of Him. And I blamed the church I was attending for my "lack".
The truth was....I didn't need more teachings. I didn't need better teachings.
It wasn't about how much I was "fed", it was about seeing the food in a different way, with a new responsibility.
I had surely eaten enough. I had eaten teaching after teaching after teaching for over 19 years.
Although, at times, I was given the opportunity to share what God was showing me; I just turned around and began to feed other overeaters....the church.
Instead of taking all this great stuff that God had given me over the years and sharing it with spiritually starving individuals....people who had not partaken of such fare.....non-church-goers, I just continued to shovel the same "grub" into the spiritual mouths of my friends. And most of them did the same.
Even when one of us, or a few of us would step outside of our church bubble to tell people about our Great Tasting God, we kept offering the same recipes over and over and over until people were just sick of hearing the same thing. The God WE were trying to feed them sounded either too bland and boring or He was too "HOT" to handle; smiting everything in His path that didn't look like the rest of the bland and boring Christians that were serving up the food.
Jesus said that we should be "the salt of the earth". We are to add flavor to the world around us. But I do believe that many from the church have lost much of the flavor and are not doing the world a whole lot of good.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, get out of the dining room. Get away from the table. There is too much good "spiritual" food that God has given you for you to just keep it to yourself. The reason you don't feel fed, is because you've probably been fed enough and you need to take what God has given you and share it with people outside of the church who are starving for a taste of how Good God is!
Also, the church is in desperate need of some new recipes. Meat and potatoes or cookies and milk just are not as spiritually nutritious as we once thought. Shake it up! There are ways to serve up the gospel that have a delicious fragrance and satisfying way of showing people who God truly is.
How about it? Do you need fed? Or do you need to ask Jesus to help you try a new recipe?