SUPPLEMENTS

Vitamins and supplements have been popular for a long time with many who are convinced of their effectiveness. They supposedly boost up the body’s needs where there is lack. There must be a great lack because I was in a store not long ago that had devoted a very large space with multiple isles and the shelves stacked from wall-to-wall with multiple vitamins and supplements and energy water.

Not long after this I was reading an article by Anne Snyder, ‘Church, Where Are You?’ She wrote: “The church, in theory, should be cultivating leaders sensitized to the lines between good and evil. Concerned about a culture that sets up irredeemable battles between friend and foe? The church, in theory, should have what it takes to model how we respond to our enemies with love. It’s as if the church is the missing puzzle piece for precisely this moment. But she is caught flat-footed, mired in her navel, lacking vision and supernatural power. And so we lay people rove, finding succor to supplement her thin gruel.” 

I had never thought of this. The church needs to be on various vitamins and supplements to help her get all the spiritual nutrition she needs. Helping the flock ‘find succor (help or relief) to supplement her thin gruel’ (a watery soup or porridge). Maybe the supplements will help to prepare us with the ‘vision and supernatural power’ she mentions. It needs to happen quickly. Snyder ends by asking: ‘Church, where are you? And, Church, where am I in you?’

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus