One who is full loathes honey,
but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. (Proverbs 27:7)

That was me that day long ago. I was far from starving to death and certainly not about to waste away from malnourishment, but I was hungry. I’d been shopping in one of the largest malls in the United States, and we’d put off eating until after shopping. So my stomach was rumbling, and when I’m hungry, bad things happen. Except on this day, something good happened. We were in the food court and I had my greasy burger in a paper sack and I was waiting for my friend who had stopped a the sushi cart for some freshly made Philadelphia rolls. Previously, I’d sneered at sushi. Raw fish? Please. I’ll take a steak that was mooing in the pasture five minutes ago, but you want me to eat uncooked salmon wrapped in rice? Barbaric.

Like I said though, I was hungry, and not feeling very preferential. And there was a lady from the sushi cart holding a tray of free sushi roll samples.

Yes. I took a sushi roll sample. From a sushi cart in a mall food court.

As I walked away I thought, “This actually isn’t all that bad!”

The weird part was that I actually began to crave sushi rolls (maki) at times. That was four years ago and I still have those days when I think, “I could go for a dragon roll right about now.”

I blame that lady and her sample tray!

Spiritual application:

Sometimes evangelizing isn’t going out and banging people over the head with the good news or doggedly trying to win them over emotionally or logically. The work of salvation is of God through his Spirit and sometimes we don’t have to do anything at all. Sometimes, we’re just there waiting for them to get hungry. Hungry for meaning, hungry for love, hungry for peace. Hungry for the fruit of the Spirit. And they may notice the fruit in us and say, “I don’t care what it is, as long as it satisfies me for a second.”

And then they realize that Christ satisfies for life.