Friday lunchtime - Black Bean-ty

For lunch today, I thought I would treat myself to a dish of rice and beans. I’m not entirely sure where I got the inspiration from.

I accidentally started this meal before taking a picture of it. So if you want the full experience, imagine what's in the picture but slightly more of it. If that's too hard, then try looking at the picture roughly one and a half times.

The lunchtime bean of choice was black beans, one of my personal favourites alongside chickpeas. I was slightly worried that I would have learned over the course of this week to hate these, but fortunately it seems to be a bit more like spending time with a friend or relative who you like but who grates on you slightly – you’ve maybe spent a bit more time with them than you usually would and might need a bit of a break, but you’ll definitely still plan to spend more time with them in the future. Unlike beans, however, most friends don’t improve if you cover them in herbs and spices.

One of the slightly unusual parts of this challenge is eating essentially the same meal for lunch and dinner. Usually I’ll have a smaller lunch and then a larger dinner, so having two meals of roughly the same size means that bizarrely I’m probably feeling fuller at this point in the day than I usually would be.

I find that my expectations when coming to a mealtime have changed a fair bit over the course of the week; it’s moved from a party to more of a business transaction, as the following plays will hopefully illustrate. (That’s right, you’ve got a song and a play this week. If that’s not multimedia I don’t know what is. No, seriously, I really don’t know what multimedia is.)

SCENE 1 – LAST WEEK

STOMACH: Hey brain, what time is it?

BRAIN: Around 12, why?

STOMACH: Awesome. That’s lunch time! Party time!

BRAIN: So it is. Let’s get the rest of the body down here and have a celebration.

MOUTH: I’ve got something coming in!

TASTEBUDS: It’s a cheese sandwich! Yay!

STOMACH and BRAIN: Yay!

MOUTH: More stuff on the way.

TASTEBUDS: It’s crisps! Yay! And fruit! Yay! And chocolate! Yay! And water! Yay!

BRAIN: Well, we don’t really say “Yay!” to water, that’s just sort of what we need. But I guess it’s good to have it.

MOUTH: Looks like we’re all done now.

BRAIN: That was a good meal. I think we all had fun there.

STOMACH: Hey brain, what time is it?

BRAIN: About 12.15, why?

STOMACH: Awesome, that’s snack time!

BRAIN: No! No snack time today.

STOMACH: Aw… :(

BRAIN: How did you pronounce that?

* * *

SCENE 2 – EARLIER THIS WEEK

STOMACH: Hey brain, what time is it?

BRAIN: Looks like it’s lunchtime again.

STOMACH: Awesome!  I feel ready for another party!

MOUTH: Incoming.

TASTEBUDS: It’s rice, yay!

STOMACH: Hm, I’m not sure rice is a yay. It’s generally nice because of the stuff that comes with it.

TASTEBUDS: It’s beans, yay!

BRAIN: Flavoured or unflavoured?

TASTEBUDS: Unflavoured! Yay!

STOMACH: Guys, that’s really not something to be all excited about. Let’s wait for the next delivery.

MOUTH: Nope, that’s it.

STOMACH: Really? That’s it? That wasn’t much of a party at all.

BRAIN: You’re telling me. That’s hardly anything.

STOMACH: Hey brain, I’m hungry.

BRAIN: Not really much I can do about that, I’m afraid.

STOMACH: I’m hungry.

BRAIN: Can’t help.

STOMACH: I’m hungry!

BRAIN: Right, I’m going on holiday.

* * *

SCENE 3 – EARLIER TODAY

STOMACH: Hello, Brain? I was just enquiring as to what the time is currently.

BRAIN: Brain is out of the office at the moment and cannot respond. Please redirect all enquiries to stomach.

STOMACH: That explains a lot. Ah well, it looks like we are getting our scheduled delivery.

MOUTH: Incoming.

STOMACH: Probably rice and beans. I’ll just put it with the others.

TASTEBUDS: What about us? Yay?

STOMACH: You can probably go on holiday too to be honest, we don’t really need you at the moment.

TASTEBUDS: :(

STOMACH: Hey, I thought I was the only one who knew how to pronounce that.

True story. And yes, before you ask, that was definitely the most concise way of explaining that.

The point of whatever hunger-driven chaos I wrote up top is that my body generally seems to be a bit more used to food simply as energy to keep me going rather than something to be enjoyed, which is actually quite a helpful transition at this point. I’m curious as to exactly what impact going the other way will have, how I’ll respond when given a whole load of flavour to deal with.

So that was my final lunch of the week. I would say it’s relatively unremarkable, but I’ve managed about 750 words worth of remarks on it, so perhaps that isn’t the fairest description of it. 

I’ll finish the post by bringing up the serious box again.

In this section, I’d like to talk a bit about my faith. My beliefs as a Christian are something that is very important to me, but for those who don’t share those beliefs, I know that they’re not always the easiest to understand. More generally, our beliefs are not something that we as a culture speak about all that much. Hopefully this can serve as something of a conversation starter if it’s something that you want to understand more - and if it starts a conversation you want to continue with me, I'd be very happy to do that.

One of the big motivators for me getting involved with the Mean Bean challenge is my faith. Those of you who are familiar with Tearfund, the organisation I've been raising money for, will know it’s a Christian organisation, which suits me quite well because I’m a Christian and like organisation. (Sorry, that sentence was not appropriate for the serious box).

One of the big differences that my faith makes in my life is that it means I have to be aware of the suffering of others. One of Jesus’ parables in Matthew 25 describes those who are blessed by God and part of God’s kingdom, and part of his description reads “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” It leaves no room for forgetting about the poor and vulnerable in society, which is something I personally find all too easy to do sometimes, particularly with my very comfortable middle-class lifestyle. This challenge seemed like a very practical way of starting to understanding the difficulties faced by those suffering in ways I have never had to, as well as a chance to raise some money to help make a difference to their lives.

Elsewhere in the Bible, it says that “God loves a cheerful giver”. This reminds me that the money and material goods that I have aren’t really my own; they are gifts from God, and I should do my best to use them wisely. My faith encourages me to be generous with my money, and although I still spend lots on things I don't need it drives me to give what I can.

Every now and again, I feel challenged to give more generously than I would ever choose to of my own volition, and I have found that, like muscles, the more you exercise giving, the easier and more natural it becomes. Whether you’re a Christian or not, I believe there is huge benefit in giving every month to charities that work in areas you are passionate about.

For some, the notion of the existence of a God is entirely incompatible with a world in which there are so many that live with famine, with disease, with warfare. I can understand why people might think that, and don’t pretend to have straightforward answers to such a difficult question. But one perspective that I find helping when dealing with such a question is in seeing something of God’s heart for this world in the passion and drive exhibited by countless charities and charity workers who seek to relieve hunger, to cure disease, to bring peace and stability to war-torn countries. Cicero wrote that "Nature herself has implanted upon the minds of all, the idea of God," and I believe that our desire to help those less fortunate than ourselves stems ultimately from the goodness of God, as is our ability to look at the world with all of its problems and keenly feel that it isn't right that things are like this.

I’m reminded of the words of Fred Rogers (no relation), a wonderful man who for many years hosted a children’s show in the USA. (If you’ve never come across the man before, he is probably one of the most Christ-like people I have ever heard about – read his Wikipedia page to get a sense of the type of person he was). His words always resonate when I see things in the world that I don’t understand, and they seem like fitting words to end this section with.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping’.”

Part of being a Christian for me is always striving to be one of the people who helps, and this is one small way in which I hope to be able to do that.

 Note: As part of my Mean Bean challenge I will be writing about my experiences each day – the more money raised, the more I write. At the time of writing, people have generously donated £410, which means I’m aiming at 2,250 words per day (excluding the ones in this explanatory paragraph). This will hopefully come in two posts, one in the morning and one in the evening. If you would like these posts to get even longer, and support the excellent work of Tearfund at the same time, please click here.