“Thy words were found, and I did eat them…” (Jeremiah 15:16a)

Once there was a boy who wanted to become a chef. He admired pots and pans as a toddler, studied ingredients and recipes as a boy, and mastered double boilers and woks while still a teenager. One day, friends ate a meal he had prepared. “That was the most fabulous food we’ve ever had! You’re ready to be a chef NOW.” Others recognized his skill and agreed. Soon he was studying under the finest chefs and flourishing as an apprentice. The more he learned and cooked, the better his dishes became.

The day arrived when he was named head chef of a grand old restaurant, and he was barely twenty-one. As a chef, he studied and experimented constantly. When he wasn’t overseeing someone toil to make soup just so, he was reading the latest works on soup. When he wasn’t putting the final touch on a souffle, he was attending a lecture on souffles. The busy chef neglected himself. He slept little and ate less. His shoes became dirty and tattered. Nearly every moment was given to perfecting mutton, instructing staff, or selecting carrots. His eyes grew bloodshot, his limbs gaunt, his hair wild. Friends and clients worried but hesitated to approach the popular chef.

Early one morning, the chef was found in the famous kitchen slumped over a crate of cabbages. Unconscious, he was rushed to a hospital. “Chronic malnutrition,” announced doctors. “He has fed many but won’t eat.” Intravenous feeding helped for only so long. The chef refused food. A second hospital stay was followed by a third, and the chef weakened further. A nurse discovered him one evening in his hospital room, clutching a book about fondue. Still in his twenties, the chef had died of starvation.

Do you teach? Sing? Care for widows and orphans? Preach? Serve in the nursery? Provide security? Usher? Make cookies for youth meetings? Whatever your ministry, remember the Parable of the Chef. Ministry is no substitute for regular feeding on the Word. Keep ministering, but feed on the Word yourself. Surrounded by food and expert in its preparation, the chef would not eat. He made food but wouldn’t eat it, fatally twisting the words of Jeremiah found above. Find the Word of God and read it. Doing otherwise risks starvation.