In searching for the meaning to life, one thing Solomon concluded was that “there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry.”1 Some people think that God has given us a list of things we cannot do in order to take away our fun, but scripture actually tells us to eat, drink, and be merry! Can that be right? Absolutely! Unfortunately, our understanding of that adage is that we can eat and drink whatever we want and as much as we want and then we will be merry! But that is not it at all.
Sometimes we eat and drink in order to forget our worries. We eat badly (often to excess) and call it “comfort food”; we drink badly (often to excess) and call it “taking the edge off.” Granted, food can cheer us up and drink can calm us down, and if we are looking for a temporary fix, then there is nothing wrong with that. However, when this short-term solution becomes our habit and the only place we look for solace, we have a problem. Then this once good thing (eating and drinking) can morph into a very bad thing, resulting in serious troubles, which, in turn, can impact many areas of our life—our health and mobility, our relationships and our work, and even our finances.
God does want us to enjoy food and drink because they are pleasing to our palates and fuel our bodies, but to believe they can provide true and lasting comfort is to put more value and weight on them than is right or proper. St. Augustine would call this a displaced love—a love out of order.
Since the days of Moses, God has been telling his children not to worry, not to fear, and not to be discouraged (Deuteronomy 31:8) and often those are the very reasons we eat and drink excessively. We worry; we fear; we are discouraged—in short, we are not at peace. We are anxious. Scripture tells us: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”2
Rather than going to food and drink, Jesus offers a better solution for handling worries and decreasing stress. He tells us to expect life to be hard instead of being surprised by it (John 16:33), to prepare for the storms instead of being tossed around by them (Matthew 7:24-27), and to share our burdens with him instead of trying to handle everything by ourselves (Matthew 11:28-30).
Jesus understands our desire to eat and drink and be merry. He said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.”3 He said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”4 When we turn to Jesus for comfort, we will be satisfied—which is what our hearts are longing for. If we live life according to the ways of the world, we will be tempted to eat and drink in order to free ourselves from distress. But if we want lasting comfort and real relaxation, we need to go to God who is “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort”5—comfort food for our souls.
1Ecclesiastes 8:15 NAS 2Philippians 4:6-7 3John 4:14 4John 6:51 52 Corinthians 1:3