Beginning with attention

“Some got their miracle. Not being cured or fixed, but finding the sustaining power to wake up every day and do what we’re here to do in spite of the pain. Daily bread.” – Knives Out, Wake Up Dead Man 

Recently, I found myself watching a recent Knives Out mystery on Netflix. Somewhat to my surprise, it ended with the above line. It felt profoundly theological. 

That phrase — ‘the sustaining power to wake up every day and do what we’re here to do’ — stayed with me, because it names something many people are hungry for right now. 

Not just food,
but strength. 
Meaning. 
Belonging. 
Hope. 

And there is a great deal of hunger in the world we are living in. 

I do not know about you, but when I sit down to watch the news in the evening, I find myself, as the Old Testament puts it, girding my loins. I am not just watching the news; I am bracing for impact. Each day seems to bring another fracture — political, moral, relational. The structures we assumed were stable feel increasingly fragile. 

So how are we, as GoHealth Community members to respond to a hungry world? And how do we respond to our own deeper hungers?  

In John’s Gospel, the first recorded words of Jesus are not a proclamation or a command. They are a question: 

“What are you looking for?” (John 1:38) 

Before belief. 
Before mission. 
Before action. 

Jesus begins with attention.
 

Feeding the hungry always begins here — by noticing. By asking what people actually need, rather than assuming we already know. Jesus invites his first followers to name their hunger. Actually, for me the emphasis is, to pause and really think about the answer not reach for the obvious… 

And when they answer — awkwardly and relationally — “Where are you staying?” — Jesus does not offer a theory. He does not give them a programme. He simply says, 

“Come and see.” 

This is not a Messiah who rescues from a distance. This is a Messiah who abides, who stays close enough to see hunger clearly — and to be affected by it – to truly listen to them and what they are seeing in the world.  

Christian faith, then, is not a club, not a test, not a rescue fantasy. It is a way of being in the world — attentive, grounded, and present. 

John the Baptist understands this. He points to Jesus — “Here is the Lamb of God” — and then he steps back. He does not control the encounter. He allows people to follow, to notice, to stay. 

So what does feeding the hungry look like — here, now, for you? What are the deeper hungers in the world, that you notice, and find the strength to attend to, because you already belong to God.  

It certainly includes feeding bodies — and we should never spiritualise hunger away. But it is also about feeding hearts starved of dignity, minds starved of meaning, communities starved of hope. 

It is about noticing where life is thin and brittle. 
About asking not, “What is my purpose?” but, “What is needed here?” 

Margaret Wheatley, writing about leadership in times of collapse, says that “meaningful action does not come from grand plans, but from careful attention to the world as it is”. 

Jesus does not say, “Go and fix everything.” 
He says, “Come and see.” 

See the hunger in your own life. 
See the hunger in your neighbour. 
See the hunger in your community, your church, this moment. 

And then respond — perhaps with action, perhaps with presence, perhaps simply with prayer. 

Because this is how love becomes visible. 
This is how faith meets reality. 
This is how hope takes shape. 

Feeding the hungry begins with attention, is sustained by belonging, and is carried out in love. 

And that is work we are called to – today, this week, and every ordinary day that follows.

Share your reflections on Knives Out 3, our deepest hungers, or on anything else that this reflection inspires, in the forum below.