What’s your idea of a great gift?  Tickets to a “March Madness” game?  A dazzling piece of jewelry?  The latest electronic device?  How about hunger? 

When a recent illness caused me to lose my appetite, it made me think about the nature of hunger and the purpose it serves. When one is sick and can't eat, the body grows weaker and weaker. The longer one goes without nourishment, the more one needs it, but the less energy one has to seek and possess it. The healthy body feels hunger, and while hunger is not thought of as a pleasant sensation, it is altogether necessary for our well-being.

There is a huge difference between having no appetite and having one's hunger satisfied. On the surface, the two may look identical in that they are characterized by a lack of hunger pangs. Yet the satisfaction of hunger leads to nourishment, while the lack of hunger leads to starvation.

The Bible recognizes this difference.  It never praises the lack of hunger, but rather the satisfaction of it. The psalmist writes that God "satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things" (Psalm 107.9). It is not the satiated who find the “promised land”, but those whose hunger drives them to God.

“He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest” (Psalm 107.35-37).

This recognition of the gift of hunger is, I believe, a crucial difference between Christianity and other religions.  Buddhists seek to eradicate desire so that they cannot feel pain; nirvana is a state emancipated from all desire. Christ taught us to seek the satisfaction of our desire in God, saying, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5.6). And just as a lack of hunger could eventually lead to starvation, the extermination of desire leads to spiritual starvation.

A friend once told me that because everything in his life was going well, he’d experienced a slackening of his spiritual appetite. He said he didn't hunger for God like he had in leaner times and found himself feeding on God’s word less and less. He recognized that this could begin a vicious cycle, whereby his spirit would grow weaker and weaker unless he disciplined himself to keep feeding it. When we don't feel like eating, we must continue to eat.  When we don't feel our need for God, we must continue to seek him.

When my appetite returned and I sat before a nourishing meal, I found myself thanking God not just for the food that He had provided, but for the hunger that drove me to seek it. Likewise, we should bless the desires of our hearts when they make us feel our need of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Him, for they will be filled.

Pastor Mullinax