Hungry & Thirsty
Photo by Jens Johnsson on Unsplash
It was no big surprise that over Christmas, I ate way too much. This is probably universally true for much of the Western world. It’s weird how you can be absolutely full from ham and seafood, but somehow you still find space for a slice of apple pie!! It’s a good thing that this season only happens once a year.
Hunger is a really weird thing. If you aren’t trained to your bodies cues you can interpret different feelings as hunger instead of what it might actually be. Sometimes we can interpret tiredness as hunger. Sometimes boredom can be interpreted as hunger. And sometimes sadness can even feel like hunger. It’s not supposed to of course, but it’s just something we’ve learnt based on our relationship with food, and our relationship with our body...and our ability to understand its needs.
But interestingly, this can happen with our soul also. But kind of in the reverse. We tend to misdiagnose our souls’ hunger for something else. For instance, instead of recognising that our souls are hungry for deep satisfaction, we assume we just need a holiday, or get more organised, or work harder, or end that relationship, quit that church, get up earlier, be more in control, get married...soul hunger is not very easy to recognise, because societally we haven’t trained ourselves to listen to its cues. In fact, we hardly acknowledge its existence.
As believers, our soul can still thirsty and hunger. And when we don’t listen to its desperate pains seeking nourishment, it can lead us to grasp at many other things. And so the cycle of thirst and hunger continues when we feed it something that though it meets our physical, social or psychological needs, does not meet the souls need. Because hunger must be filled. It is, however, one of the promises of Jesus that we will never hunger and thirst again when we not only come to Him but consume of Him:
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)
Religion does not feed us. Even though we could be doing all the right things, we can still be incredibly hungry and thirsty. We could be turning up, and ticking all the boxes typical of the faith lifestyle. But showing up at the dinner table doesn’t necessarily guarantee that we’ve eaten the bread.
So at the start of a New Year, pause and take some time to listen to your soul. Is it hungry? Is it thirsty? Have you really been feeding your soul?
This year might be the year to learn the hunger cues of your soul, and how Jesus intends to satisfy them all.