Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome to day 14 of our Lent 2026 series,
In the Wilderness,
Still Held.
As always,
As we begin,
I invite you to take a moment to settle,
Let your body arrive,
Let your breathing soften.
Again,
There's nothing to be forced here today,
Simply notice that you are here and that God is here with us.
Today we continue in John 4.
And just after speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well,
Jesus' disciples return with food.
They're concerned about him and they urge him to eat,
But Jesus says something completely unexpected.
I have food to eat that you do not know about.
They misunderstand him and assume that he means literal bread,
But he's speaking of another nourishment,
A sustenance,
That comes from participating in the life and work of God.
My food,
Jesus says,
Is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work.
Let's just sit with that for a moment.
So many of us in our world today are tired in ways that sleep just doesn't fix.
We're not simply physically exhausted,
We are inwardly depleted.
We consume information,
We complete tasks,
We answer messages,
We move from one obligation to the next obligation.
Personal life,
Professional life,
Back to personal life,
And still something feels undernourished.
Jesus isn't dismissing physical needs here though,
He's revealing that there is a nourishment beneath productivity.
There's a way of living that feeds you,
Even as you give yourself.
Take a deep breath and ask your body,
Where do you feel tired right now?
And then ask your spirit,
Where do you feel tired right now?
And gently acknowledge that.
Just let it sit with you for a moment.
Now in the wilderness,
Israel learned something similar.
They were given manna,
Daily bread,
And they were also taught that survival was not sustained by bread alone.
In Deuteronomy,
It's written that God allowed them to hunger and then fed them with manna,
Quote,
So that you might know that one does not live by bread alone,
Unquote.
Provision is much deeper than what we can measure,
And sustenance isn't always visible.
Jesus speaks of food that the disciples can't see.
He's nourished by alignment,
By participating in what God is doing.
And this is important to notice,
Because this isn't some frantic striving or performance to try and prove himself.
Jesus is participating with.
When you live from deeper nourishment,
Effort becomes participation rather than depletion.
Because you don't work parallel to God,
You work with God.
You get into the flow with God.
And we all know what it's like when we step into a river that's flowing along.
Yes,
We can swim in the direction the river's going.
But when the current's going that same way,
Boy,
The swimming is so much easier.
So here's a question to ask yourself.
What leaves me quietly replenished?
Not the activities that impress or fill time or check boxes or look great on social media,
But the ones that actually restore you.
Honest conversations.
Simple and unforced prayer.
Walking outside without the need to achieve anything.
Teaching,
Creating,
Listening,
Reading.
Things you're doing when you're not grasping for approval.
Let one or two surface.
And then hold it in your awareness and notice the difference between that experience and busyness.
And here's another question.
Where am I making busyness,
Or where am I trying to make busyness,
Fruitfulness?
And where am I mistaking my busyness for being fruitfulness?
The disciples are thinking about lunch.
Jesus is thinking about harvest.
He says,
Look up,
See that the fields are ripe.
This isn't the words of somebody who's driven and striving.
This is the words of somebody who is awake and sees.
Sometimes our exhaustion comes from scattering our energy in a hundred different directions.
We're busy,
But we're not aligned.
We're not in the flow.
True fruitfulness carries a different texture.
Not always easy,
But definitely always coherent.
Because there's an inner yes that goes along with that.
Take another deep breath in.
What might it mean,
I wonder,
To live from deeper nourishment?
To begin your day not feeling urgent and busy,
But by being attentive.
To ask the question quietly,
Where is life already growing?
Where is God already at work?
And how might I join in and participate?
With that,
Because participation is what feeds the soul.
It's the striving that drains it.
Notice your body now.
Has anything softened?
Has the frantic edge eased even slightly?
Because quite often interior nourishment is subtle.
It often feels like steadiness,
Like groundedness or quiet strength.
It doesn't shout,
But it does sustain.
Imagine yourself moving through the rest of this week from that deep place.
Responding rather than reacting.
Choosing what truly matters and possibly even letting some things go.
This is about being invited to join life.
You don't have to generate it.
But just choose and say yes to participating in that life.
And as we come to a close,
Let this final prayer form subtly within you.
Simply this.
Nourish me,
God,
From beneath the surface.
Teach me the food I do not see.
Lead me into participation,
Not depletion.
Amen.
Take one more slow breath.
Feel the support beneath you.
And when you're ready,
I invite you to rise and to carry with you the quiet strength of deeper sustenance.
Less frantic and more rooted.
Rooted deeply in the grace,
Peace and love that keeps us and sustains us this day and every day.
Amen.
Until tomorrow,
My friends.
May grace and peace be with you.
