Dealing with Hunger

“I’M HUNGRY!”  This is a phrase we all learn early in our life. Since according to the rule of threes, an average person can survive for three weeks without food, it’s ironic that most people begin to worry about food very early on in a crisis.  Most of us in the developed, modern world have never had to go without a meal unless we are fasting for religious or medical reasons.  While others in the less privileged nations try to figure out how to get enough to eat, we have many programs, doctors, diets and surgery options to help us figure out how not to eat so much!  The truth is, most of us could go quite a long time before true starvation sets in.

However, being hungry is something you feel every few hours every day.  Add the stress of a survival situation and the fact that many of us are stress eaters and the problem compounds itself.  Having a few Clif bars or nutritious cereal bars packed away in a jacket pocket or glove compartment could be a real comfort in the beginning hours of a disaster.  Even a packet of nuts or beef jerky would be welcome as long as it didn’t cause you to get too thirsty in a situation where water is scarce.  Basically, anything that is individually packaged and has a long shelf life without refrigeration would be good to have on hand.   But, you do need to know that if you don’t have anything to drink, you shouldn’t eat anything either.  Food makes your thirst worse and takes fluids from your body to digest.

Procuring food is one of the last items you should concern yourself with in survival.  Getting a fire started, building a proper shelter and finding and purifying water all top the list ahead of food.  In my next post, I’m going to talk about survival fishing and how efficient a source of food it can be in areas where there are bodies of water that are clean enough to eat the fish.  While foraging for greens can be a helpful way of passing the time and filling your stomach with something to soothe the hunger reminders, it is almost impossible to get adequate long term sustenance that way.  There is a humorous bumper sticker that says that “Vegetarian is an old Indian word for poor hunter.”

While things are normal, it is good to practice the art of fasting.  It has many health benefits as well as spiritual benefits.  Denying ourselves our necessary food leads to greater discipline and willpower besides drawing us closer to God and defeating Spiritual enemies.  It also helps us learn to be able to push back from the table when the flesh cries out for one more helping of blackberry cobbler!

There is one way in which we never have to go hungry.  This is the area of our spiritual self.  Jesus said that we are blessed when we hunger and thirst after righteousness, for we will be filled!  Are you hungry for God’s Presence and Righteousness in your soul?  Too often we have been filling ourselves with the food of this world and do not hunger for Christ.  I challenge you today to turn away from the world’s table and take your fill of the Table of the Lord.  You don’t have to be hungry!

James B.

PS. You can check out my website at www.waypointsurvival.com and look at and order my custom knives at www.benderknifeworks.com.