Starving to Live

There’s a link between starvation and full, rich living.

A few months ago, I was watching a TED talk by Dr. William Li on starving cancer. He explained how throughout our lives, we all develop little pre-cancerous tumors.  The difference between a healthy person and a person with a cancer diagnosis is whether those little tumors have grown a blood supply.   If they do, then the tumors receive the nutrients they need to grow into big problems.   Dr. Li goes on to describe how some foods can prevent new blood supplies from forming, effectively starving and killing those early tumors.

A few weeks ago my 9-year old had asked what Grammy’s cancer was doing to her. I explained that cancer is when some cells in our body grow without caring about the other cells. They only look after their own interests.  “I wish cancer wasn’t so selfish” she said to me later.  I had to agree.

As I thought about it some more, I realized how the same is true in the whole of life.  We have little parts of us that want what we want, when we want it.  Some of us call this the devil, some call it our old self (using the apostle Paul’s wording), and some use other words. No matter how we describe it, its like there’s little tumors inside us that can become big, selfish problems if they’re allowed to grow.  They need to be starved if life is going to be rich and full.

Dr. Li mentioned foods that can starve cancer. I think there are two spiritual “foods” can starve selfishness: surrender and generosity.

Surrender. 

We can’t know everything. Believing that we is a kind of arrogance not backed up by experience.  No matter how well we prepare, sometimes life brings us twists we couldn’t foresee.

When those surprises come, we may want to circle the wagons, raise our defenses and look out only for number one.  While that may work in the short-term, it will burn bridges with the people we need for support and companionship.

Instead, why not surrender our plans to One who is greater, who has seen all the variables, and whose has a plan to make them work out for our good? (Romans 8:18-30)   Surrender is placing God at the center of our lives.

Generosity.

Giving our time, energy and resources to another helps us tangibly experience what its like to consider another as important as ourselves. Sometimes it comes with feeling the rush of giving.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  But all the time it is a vital step on the path to deeper, fuller connections with others.

One last word: the sequence of these is important. Generosity without surrender can degenerate into self-indulgence as we focus on all that we’ve done, instead of the One in whose plan we’re playing a part.

But, when we first surrender and then give generously, we find our connection with others and with God grows deeply.  The little selfish bits in us are starved, and we’re freed to live a full and rich life.