The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Episode 69: I Was Raised on Wonder Bread

Episode Date: June 22, 2018

Whether it’s a product, new food fad, or political view, you’re probably tired of being sold things. With all the noise in our culture, here is what we aren’t hearing. We aren’t hearing a lot of people bringing up Jesus Christ and the wisdom of God in everything going on around us. We can listen to all the news and keep up with the latest trends, but the bottom line is, are we really seeking God and not the world in every aspect of our lives?

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show, Episode 69, Raised on Wonderbread. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, welcome to the show again this week. I'm so glad that you could join me.

Wow. Thank you so much for all of your feedback last session last week. Man, we got a lot of good feedback from many of you all over the world, actually, as we were talking about suicide and depression and anxiety. And I think we really hit something in that show where we talked about what the church teaches about suicide, preventing it, looking at some of the signs and walking in compassion. So your feedback has been incredible. Thank you for going to iTunes and Google Play and leaving your feedback. And hopefully I hope to hear from more people who would say, you know, the show made a difference in my life. We did get that. We got some feedback of people saying that they've really been struggling and this show made a big difference. So that is episode 68 on

suicide, preventing and responding. So thank you so much. Well, this week, I'm changing the tone just a little bit. And sometimes, you know, when I'm thinking about things throughout the week, I come up with ideas. And I want to share some of those with you. And I got to thinking about a topic for this week. And it really came from thinking about a childhood memory growing up in school. And this show is called Raised on Wonderbread.

If you don't know what Wonderbread is, Google it now. You can look at the old commercials and see the old bags that the wonder bread was wrapped in. And I want to talk a little bit about that. And once again, if you want to get in touch with me and you want to know about a particular topic or you want me to discuss a particular topic, then feel free to write me. The e-mail is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And my own personal website is jeffcavens.com. And that's also what I use for Twitter and Facebook as well.

So I was thinking this week about growing up. I've been with my mom and dad this week and my sisters and we were getting together. And, you know, you start to think in a nostalgic way. And I was thinking about my fourth and fifth and sixth grade years going to lunch in Bloomington, Minnesota. And I was one of those kids that would, I'd get a quarter from. my mom and two extra cents every day as we would go off to school. And that quarter was to get a hot lunch. And the two cents was to get an extra, what was it, a half pint of milk. And, you know, I always had to get that because it has vitamin D and build strong bones and all that. But I would go

to school and I would get my hot lunch. And you remember those hot lunches. If you're, if you're my age, you remember them. You would go through the line and the lunch lady would take your quarter and then they would give you tater tots, square pizza, goulash, macaroni and cheese, whatever they happen to have with a little token piece of fruit or a little cup of nuts or something like that. And then at the end, you had to make that big decision. Do I want the extra milk or not? And I always wanted the extra milk. And then you'd go sit down and you'd start training. with your friends, the friends who didn't like pizza, but they did like the dessert. We'd do some trading there.

But I noticed one thing about sitting down in fourth and fifth and sixth grade, and that was that one of my two best friends, Mark, Mark would come to lunch, and Mark would, it had this tin lunch pail, and it had a plaid design on it. And a lot of the kids had these lunch pails where you would open it up and it had a thermos and a room for your lunch. Now, here's what was interesting about Mark's lunch is that he would take out an apple every day. He would take out a little bag of fruit every day, a cookie, and then he would have a sandwich, which was wrapped by his mother with wax paper, and it was folded perfect. Absolutely, perfectly. And I used to look at him with my goulash on my plate and think to myself,

man, his mom really puts a lot of time into this. It even had a napkin in there and a note from his mother expressing her deep love. And I thought, that is really, really cool. But I noticed something interesting about Mark's sandwich. And that was that his sandwich was made out of whole wheat. And for that, I felt sorry for him. Because I was raised in an era, and perhaps you remember this. Google it. If you're too young, Google it. I was raised in an era where we had Wonderbread. And I remember members of my family saying to me, well, you know, you know, No, in the past, poor people ate whole wheat bread, but wonder bread is preferable because it has six vitamins.

Now, when I realized that Wonderbread had six vitamins, I was intrigued because we would look at that Wonderbread with that wrapper on it, with the beautiful balloons and everything, and wonder, which vitamins are in there? And how can we verify? I don't see them. and my mom used to tell us about how wonder bread was just really, really good. White bread was really healthy for you. Whole wheat, not so much, but it confused me because my dad would take the wonder bread

and he would roll it up in his hands, put it on a pan, and bake it for about 20 minutes, and go carp fishing. And so I was a little bit confused as to how my wonder bread was good for me. And at the same time, my dad would go carp fishing with it. In the meantime, Mark has these good-looking sandwiches that his mother made that actually looked very healthy. Now, in hindsight, we do realize that the whole wheat bread was probably better. I think that Wonder Bread was invented in something like 1921, and later they started adding nutrients to it. Now, Wonder Bread was good for other things, too.

I'm going to get on to my point here. So if you're wondering, where are we going with this? But another thing that we would do with Wonder Bread is they had amazingly beautiful wrappers, this plastic bag that Wonder Bread came in. It was so good, you only needed one wrapper to wrap the bread, different than Pepperidge Farm, which has two. That's a little bit more work to get into that bread. But in the Wonder Bread, we would take the wrapper, and if you had two of them,

you'd put it over your socks and then put your fill. feet into the boots, go out sledding, and you had that added protection. So Wonder Bread was very good to me in not only with the six vitamins, but also for my feet, keep them dry in the winter. Now, why do I bring that up to you? Because the truth of the matter was that whole wheat bread was better for you. But I was sold on a bill of goods that Wonderbred was actually the best. And I had no way of verifying it really, but I went along with it. And I'm a Wonderbred kid. Maybe you are too. And this got me thinking this week about all the things that our culture is telling us about do this, do that, you know, and all the wisdom that's coming from Hollywood and all the wisdom from

CNN and Fox and if you're like me, you're probably a little bit fatigued on being sold things in our culture, whether it's political views or whether it's products or its food. Isn't it amazing? You can watch the news and find out that 10 years ago you started taking vitamin D because it was good for you, particularly if you live in the North, you know? And now you find out with a report that vitamin D does nothing for you at all. all. I heard stories about this with vitamin C. I heard it about with fish oil and so forth. And after a while, it's like, what am I supposed to believe? Well, what I really feel the Lord is showing me right now in my life in the midst of all of this information overload is to walk in common sense,

of course, you know, and do my homework, but to seek the Lord in everything. to seek the Lord in everything and to find out, you know, what does God have for me? We can sit and listen to political views, you know, fortified with this and CNN and Fox, and we can listen to all the trends about health and relaxing and emotional well-being and so forth. But the bottom line is, are we really seeking God in every area of our life? I truly believe that the Bible has answers to every area of our life. For example, last week, on the show, we were talking about suicide and depression and anxiety. And I truly do believe that the Lord has answers for this. When it comes to the border problems in Mexico and the United States,

I truly believe that the Lord has wisdom for us. When it comes to North Korea, when it comes to Russia, when it comes to the Russian probe, when it comes, you know, all of this, I believe that if we seek the Lord, there is wisdom for us. But here's what I'm not hearing in the public discourse. I'm not hearing a lot of people that are bringing up Jesus Christ in the wisdom of God in all of the these things. And I'm reminded of Colossians. When Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, he said that we have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery of Christ and in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That is a very powerful, powerful statement that Paul makes. And the reason I'm bringing it up this week is because I, in prayer, in thinking about this, I just have this sense that you may be like me

and that you're getting a little tired of all the politics and all the salesmanship and all the marketing of things in the world and buy this, do that. And you just want, you want the truth. You want Jesus. So in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Do you believe that? I do. I truly believe that in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And if you believe that, let me ask one question. And I'm asking this about myself. Oftentimes people say in radio that radio is about preaching to yourself, you know, and I think that's true to some extent. If all wisdom and the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Jesus Christ, then let me ask you this. This last week, where did you?

you search? That's a good question, isn't it? Where did you search? Where did you look for your wisdom? Where did you look for knowledge this last week? Whether it be about your marriage, your children, finances, political views, orphans. Where did you look for wisdom? I'm surprised at how often we can proclaim Christ, but then seek wisdom and knowledge in the world. Now, I think the world does have a lot of wisdom and knowledge that we can gain. Yes, yay, rah-rah. But if all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Jesus Christ, then shouldn't our lives be focused on Jesus? Shouldn't there be a certain percentage of your life this week that is focused on Jesus and trying to mine the great treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So I'd ask you, what are you going through in your life

right now? Think about it for a moment. You might want to even write it down. What are three things that you are going through right now in your life? And where are you going for answers? Who are you seeking for answers? Now, you know, when it comes to Wonderbread, I was a boy raised on Wonderbread. but I got to give credit to my parents. They raised me Catholic. I had the bread that made me wonder, and that's the Eucharist. And that's the bread that's really changed my life. Wonder bread? Yes, I guess it made me the sort of world-class athlete that I thought I was, but wasn't. But the great bread, the bread from heaven, the Eucharist, is what has really changed my life. And so every time we see something that's sold by the world, I always like to think of,

well, supersize it. Is there something in the kingdom of God that is really, really true and really fortified versus what the world has to offer? And wisdom as well. I'm going to take a break when I come back. I want to talk a little bit about the Eucharist and I want to talk a little bit about wisdom and seeking wisdom with the situation that you're going through in your life today. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Study program is the most popular and acclaimed Catholic Bible study out there, and it has helped hundreds of thousands of people find new meaning in their lives. If you want to encounter the power of God's Word and better understand how your life fits into the story of salvation history,

consider participating in a great adventure Bible study. To preview the first session of any TGA Bible study for free, create an online account at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven show talking about being raised on wonderbread. I was raised on Wonderbread, and I received nearly every day six vitamins. And I'm not sure, to be honest with you, which ones they are. I know Dee is in there. But lately they're saying that Dee doesn't do what we think it did.

But then a few days ago, my wife told me, a broadcast that a D is back up on the A list now. It's doing stuff again. So I'm not sure. But I do know that if I eat fairly well, I'm going to be taken care of. And my wife takes care of that. So we're talking about raised on wonderbread. And the world has a wonderbread when it comes to wisdom. And that wonderbread can be found on talk radio. It can be found on the online, television, CNN, and Fox. They all have their fortified wonderbread. bread that they're selling the world. But you and I have to see through all of this and make a decision as to whether we're going to sit in that kitchen or we're going to seek Christ in whom

is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so I guess what I'm saying to you this week is in the area, for example, of wisdom. In the area of wisdom, we've got to make a conscious decision that we're going to seek Christ for the issues that we're facing in our life today and not settle for wonder bread that the world has to offer, but the real bread, the real life, the real wisdom. So often, you know, we fly by the seat of our pants going by gut feeling versus, you know, life informed by godly wisdom. Wisdom in the rearview mirror versus wisdom charting your course. And I like the way that wisdom is defined. It's a to find wisdom is the right application of knowledge resulting in an integrated, fruitful, and holy

life. And the knowledge that we gain can be gained through reading and gain through prayer, through all kinds of sources. But applying that knowledge in a way that's going to integrate our life and be fruitful and end up with a holy life, that's wisdom. And the foundation of wisdom is in proverbs chapter nine in verse 10 fear of the lord is the foundation of wisdom proverbs 15 16 better to have little with fear of the lord than to have great treasure and inner turmoil jesus is the one who has all the wisdom all the knowledge in in the world and he's the one that we need to seek with all of our heart so what i what i'm i guess encouraging you to do this week with whatever problems you are facing right now is this week to say, you know what, I'm going to

turn off the wonder bread of the world right now and I'm going to seek Jesus concerning this problem. Is it a problem with your patience? Is it a problem with lust? Is it a problem with anger? Is it a problem with envy? Is it a problem with loneliness? Is it a problem with jealousy of your sister, your brother, whatever it might be, seek Jesus. And I would recommend reading the Bible, obviously, but I'd also recommend going deep into the catechism and taking that time to seek the Lord concerning that particular topic. We need to treat wisdom like a hidden treasure. And that's what Proverbs chapter 2 says. It says, search for wisdom like hidden treasure. And as Proverbs 8 says, is far more valuable than rubies.

In putting that in a modern setting, you know what I would say? I would say wisdom is far more valuable than CNN or Fox. Wisdom is far more valuable than the self-help section down at the bookstore or on Amazon. Certainly there are treasures to be mined out there. But if we truly believe that Jesus, contains all of this wisdom and knowledge, we have to pursue him. And if you're like me, we go through times where all of a sudden I realize, I'm not doing that. You know, I'm just on cruise control here. Another one I really appreciate is Proverbs chapter 20 in verse 15.

Wise words are more valuable than much gold and many rubies. And what you need in your life right now to solve the problems that you're facing might not be money. It might not be the world's wonder bread. It just might be the very wisdom from God, the one who created you and knows you and loves you. Proverbs 23, by truth, and do not sell it, by wisdom, instruction, and understanding. But one of my great, one of the great verses that I love when it comes to wisdom and what I would call God's super wonderbread is from James chapter one, you need wisdom? ask for it ask for it you know how many times in my life where I have been cornered I felt like my back was against the wall and I was like Lord I don't know what to do I don't know what to do in this situation

and I know the email you send me I know a lot of the situations people are writing saying here's my situation I don't know what to do well James says ask for it I used to think when I would read that I think oh come on That's too simple. Just ask for it. How do you just ask for it? You know how you ask for it. Ask for it. Okay, I'll demonstrate it. Okay, you ready? God, give me wisdom on how to raise my kids. That's how you do it. You ask for wisdom and then have a heart and a mind that is expecting an answer, that God can give you wisdom. He can do it through scripture, he can do it through a homily, he can do it through a friend, he can do it through a billboard, he can do it through all kinds of ways, maybe over even overhearing a conversation from, you know, at a restaurant, God can give you wisdom. How many times in my life I've asked

for God, you know, God's wisdom and I drove by, I saw something on a billboard and I thought, oh my, that's for me. That is for me. I felt like God wanted me, wanted me to see that. So I'm encouraging you today that if you need the wisdom, don't just listen to the wonder-bred commercials of this world and the shows of this world, but seek God and ask him for wisdom. And some of the books that you could read in the Bible are, the wisdom books are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Syrac, the Book of Wisdom, rather obvious, and James in the New Testament. So those are all books that you can read. And, you know, Romans chapter 12, Paul talks about having our minds transformed concerning raising

children, marriage, finances. You can have your mind transformed, but your mind will only be transformed not by eating the wonder bread of this world, but by eating his word. And in addition to that, his body and blood, the Eucharist. You see, in the mass, the massive. is divided up into two major acts. It's the liturgy of the Word, and it's the Liturgy of the Eucharist. My friend, that is the Wonderbred. The Eucharist is the Wonderbred, fortified with infinite vitamins for your soul. The Word of God is fortified with infinite wisdom because it is Christ and has the answer for your soul, for your life, for your problems, for your predicaments. And I just want to be a voice today in this simple show blasting a message into your life that there is a

natural wonder bread, also used for carp fishing, but there is also a supernatural wonder bread, and that is Jesus Christ, who comes to you in the mass, in his word, and in his body, and his blood. And as you look at the Eucharist, yes, like I and my sisters would look at wonder bread and say, have you found any vitamins yet? I can't see them. People will say about the Eucharist, I can't see how this is different than any other bread other than what the church has told us, what Jesus has told us. If the drug administration or all the administrations in the United States dealing with food and alcohol and everything else are telling us this is what's in the bread and we believe them, can't we believe what Jesus says? And the church, when he says,

this is my body. This is my blood. We seem to put a lot of faith in food administrations and institutions about what we put into our mouth. Can we believe what the church teaches us about what we put in our mouth during mass? It is the greatest source of strength. When I was growing up, Wonder Bread was bragging about greatest source for vice. vitamins, yay. But the church tells us that the Eucharist is the greatest source of grace. The church tells us that. It's very, very powerful. Proverbs 3 says, happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gets understanding. And that's what I want to share with you this week, is that we have been given Jesus Christ, who is the answer to everything we are listening to.

on the news. And I just encourage you to seek his face and to receive him in the Eucharist. Truly, this is the Wonderbread. And as I looked at Mark's lunch growing up, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and saw the love and the care that his mother put into every lunch she gave him, I noticed it. it didn't go unnoticed and every day i think myself wow but even more how much jesus loves you and is prepared a tremendous meal for you and is prepared wisdom for you let's stop in our tracks and let's turn to him today let's seek him for the answers and i know what you're thinking i can hear it right now some some of you are saying And you know what? I believe that. And thank you for reminding me because I haven't been doing it the last week. I haven't been doing it the last month. I've been so busy, but yet I still watch CNN and Fox. And I'm getting frustrated about the world's situation, but I'm not stopping by the chapel. I'm not opening up the word of God. I'm not receiving as much of Jesus as I possibly could. So my friend, I just pray for you this week, pray for wisdom, and pray for God. nutrients to fill your life and to change your life. Just a reminder this week. I was raised on

Wonderbread, and today I'm being raised on the Eucharist and fortified. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, I thank you for that memory of Mark's mother and her love for Mark and preparing a lunch for him every day. My mind turns to you now, Lord, and your great love for me. And your love for you. all of my friends who are listening and you have prepared a table for us out of pure love and you have not given us wonder bread you have given us the eucharist the most wonderful of all breads not a bread from earth but a bread from heaven and you have told us you have said to us that if we eat of this bread we will live forever Jesus we believe you we trust you and we eat and we listen to

to your word, thank you for giving us this oasis of love in the middle of confusion, politics, and busy lives. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the details of your love in our life. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And as always, my friend, thank you for going to iTunes and Google Play. Thank you for sharing the show with other people. Again, if you know of anybody who's been struggling with suicide, depression, or anxiety, give them show number 68. It's a special, it's a whole hour on that show, and give it as a gift to a friend. You have a great day. Enjoy your wonder bread, but even more, enjoy the body and blood of Jesus Christ. God bless.