The ease and convenience with which we consume our meals has evolved over time, as has everything else. The manner we eat our meals is really important in carrying on with our daily affairs, and proper nutrition gives us the energy to go in and out of the many events we face. I feel this is also true for how we have come to ingest our spiritual meals.
The novelty of single-serve “bowls” type dining have easily found their way into our home kitchen/ family table “experience”. Streamlining, efficiency, and personal choice are now the more recommended – than all previous versions of the eating experience to date.
I say to date because when I was young, the popular idea of TV Dinners was introduced, and quickly became quite common in many households. Almost overnight, families went from the possibility to exchange marvelous fun, engaging, thought-provoking conversation around a dinner table, to more of – each individual simply shoving food down one’s neck from a convenient TV tray table in front of this other latest invention – the color television.
Seemingly conventional ideas had sought then, and do so now to change the course, quality, and direction of how we use engagement and nutrition; how we actually interact with each other as to the content of food. The need for communion has never changed, but maybe our approach has.
Craving foods and food choices that could be more quickly produced and consumed without all the hassle, eventually gave way to microwavable foods. (I might quickly point out too, fast is not fast enough nowadays. Rarely does anyone go inside of a fast-food place because that would take far too long to get a to-go order. In fact, the quality of an eatery is not based on how good, or nutritional the food actually is – but on how fast is the drive thru.)
Did these unnoticed changes help our overall well-being? Certainly, swelling waistlines told that quickly digested foods with excessive salt and fat content could cause some damage to our social and physical welfare. Subtle habits and disciplines that have seeped in to alter our dining experiences would eventually spread into our spiritual lives as well.
Evolving, (in any category) is always about the speed, quality, and direction of life which coincides with the manner, customs, and time for which a people live. In this case it pertains to what is really being spent on the taking in of a good, fresh meal. Again, true of both physical and spiritual meals.
Our diet both in the physical and spiritual realm, both similar yet different are a picture of the style or manner, and should be a precautionary in how we approach (ingest) things. What if we exposed our conscience at the dinner table, would our manners cause us shame? How about if we shared our social inattentiveness? Would others want to ask us back for another meal? Or perhaps, our lack of inter-personal skills, and our transparency make us to shy away from the table of the Lord too? Maybe preferring then, one-sided conversations (similar to enjoying personal TV dinners).
Clearly there are differences and similarities to meals consumed whether for the body, or for the spirit. The convenience a “bowl” may offer is in the nutritional soundness, and personalized convenience is a communion that allows the consumer to place within it what it may be willing to consume. Not all of us have the appetite, or time for a 5-7 course meal. I get it. And maybe it’s not necessary. For it is ever about quality over quantity. 
Spiritual and physical foods are intended to nourish us and accomplish their intended purposes. Christ is the nourisher of believers, and their spiritual growth occurs as they “feed” upon Him – hearing His word and following it (Acts 20:32; 1 Tim. 4:6; 2 Pet. 3:18). To “go in and out” is a common Biblical idiom (John 10:9) to depict the idea of freeing choosing the living and carrying on one’s affairs in this life. Might we strive today to be more engaged with the Bread of Life. Maybe the quality and direction of such communal time will produce enjoyment, satisfaction, and sufficient hunger for the next good, engaging meal.
