Bread from Heaven: Food as Prayer

Thomas Merton once wrote that breathing is prayer.  So, I believe, is eating.  As a vegan, every forkful of every meal can be a prayer of peace and thanksgiving to God.  Following a plant based diet is a means of following Christ in a tangible manner that brings blessing to animals, other humans, and to the earth that God himself breathed life into and gave to us to for safekeeping until his return.

Speak up for those who have no voice, for the cause of those appointed to die
Proverbs 31:8


Following a plant-based diet also brings blessing to oneself.  As the only instrument you have to carry out the unique mission and plan God placed you here to accomplish for Him, your body’s relying on you to care for it.  A plant-based diet is consistently shown to be the healthiest way to feed oneself if followed properly, which is not at all difficult.  Heart disease can be reversed and even prevented with a vegan diet, something no drug company or surgeon can claim.  Many cancers associated with meat-eating, such as colon cancer, are also drastically reduced, and there are many other benefits.

Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.  And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground--everything that has life". 
Genesis 1:29-30


There are many scriptural references that indicate a plant-based diet was the original diet intended for humans and that permissions for eating meat later were concessions for a sinful world.  The image of the peaceable kingdom in the book of Isaiah reveals the ideal that God sees for the time when Christ will return, and it’s up to us to restore our earth to that garden paradise before his arrival.  One huge first step in that process on many levels is the adoption of a plant-based diet with its implications for world hunger, climate change, environmental degradation, animal suffering, and human health.  We are all indeed connected.

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.  The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.  The cow will graze near the bear.  The cub and the calf will lie down together.  The lion will eat hay like a cow.  The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.  Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.  Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord. 
Isaiah 11:6-9


That first step begins with you…today…at your kitchen table…making a new choice.  One that is, at its heart, a spiritual decision to follow Christ in a new and meaningful way…one forkful at a time.

What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.
Matt 10:29 NLT


Watch a lovely little movie full of beautiful photography that says it best!


Greg Boyd is the pastor of an evangelical mega-church in St. Paul, MN called Woodland Hills Church.  He’s controversial for a number of reasons, not the least of which is he’s an evangelical vegetarian.  He recently wrote about it on his blog and, though I'm not an evangelical, he’s the first person I've run across who articulates in a similar way what I’ve been thinking for a long time regarding God’s original intent for our diets, the way it'll shake out at the end of this journey and the whole darn mess in the middle.  And Greg says it way better than I ever could so I’ll let him do the honors:
 
Greg Boyd--Why I'm Vegetarian
Greg Boyd--The First Fruit of the Coming Non-Violent Creation
Greg Boyd--Compassionate Dominion and Factory Farms


"What's not for dinner; Will it actually be the meatless who inherit the Earth? The U.N. says eating habits must change."

Watch a 7-minute trailer for the HSUS short film documentary "Eating Mercifully".

Read the personal witness of Sue Grisham, founder of Episcoveg, writing about animal advocacy in the church for the Episcopal Public Policy Network.