The summer before my junior year in high-school, I took a
bicycle trip with some family friends.
The goal was to bike all the way around Lake Michigan, starting in Illinois and finishing in Wisconsin. We didn't make it the entire way around the
Lake, but we got very close. All in all,
it was over two weeks of continuous bicycling - no matter the precipitation or
the heat of the day.
While on this trip, I discovered something new. If I got thirsty enough, even warm water
tasted good. Granted, I had to be very
thirsty. And granted, there was no other
water available because we rarely stopped unless it was absolutely
necessary. So, when I did get thirsty I
gladly drank the water that I had, even though it had been thoroughly warmed by
the sun. In normal circumstances, this
water would have been dumped into the grass.
I have rarely known that kind of thirst in my life, nor have I easily
forgotten it.
This thirst is reminiscent of the Psalmist's proclamation in
Chapter 42:
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
When was the last time you were really thirsty?; hungry?
What are those things that you normally and continually ache for? When was the last time you experienced an
intense hunger to know and engage your God?
Not the last time you needed a "pick-me-up" because you were
having a tough week, or the last time you needed God to give you a genie-like
wish (hoping he would go back into his lamp after granting your wish). No, the hunger I am talking about leaves a
continuous ache in one's heart; it longs to be filled. It is the kind of ache that affects you so deeply that you
have to do something about it.
As we approach another new year, let me challenge you
regarding your appetite for the Lord. Do
you long to know him more deeply? Do you
hunger and thirst after those things closest to his heart, and reflective of
his character? Ask him for this hunger,
and he will give it to you.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be filled.
(Matthew 5:6). It is only in hungering after our God and in
obeying him that we will find a true and lasting fulfillment, and he wants us
to be truly fulfilled.
Father Tom