Satisfying Our Hunger

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Louisa and I set our alarms to rise early this morning. We needed to stuff two 20 pound turkeys, peel 15 pounds of potatoes, and finish preparations for an extended family Thanksgiving dinner. Cooking side-by-side made it fun, and we chatted away through the hours.

I thought of the rest of the world and how so many don’t have a chance to sit at a dinner table like most Americans do on Thanksgiving. Some people have never known that very-full feeling we all experience on this day of feasting, and it’s almost embarrassing to say we experience it often.

Thanksgiving fell on an early date this year, because November 1 was a Thursday. So when I opened my Spurgeon devotional today, I didn’t expect it to be about the holiday. After all, he was writing from England, where Thanksgiving doesn’t exist. But lo and behold, his thoughts were perfect:

“Hunger is by no means a pleasant sensation. Yet blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Such persons shall not only have their hunger relieved with a little food, but they shall be… filled with goodness by Jehovah himself.” *

If only we made it our top priority to “get filled” the biblical way rather than trying to fill ourselves by satisfying hungers that are inappropriate, out of proportion, or  even sinful. Attempting to find satisfaction by indulging in the wrong things does bring a measure of pleasure at the time, but the feeling never lasts. Badly chosen pleasures don’t fill us for long, because they don’t address the hunger pangs of the heart and soul.

There’s only one way to satisfy those hunger pangs, and Spurgeon said it well: “The Lord will satisfy soul-longings, however great and all-absorbing they may be.”

That super-full feeling after a big meal eventually disappears, and tomorrow our stomachs will growl again and we’ll be quick to fill them up. No matter how much we eat, we’ll always be hungry in a few hours, because stomach-satisfaction is short lived. And though we don’t think so at the time, other pursuits to get satisfied apart from the Lord’s doing it are just as repeatedly needy as a stomach.

We don’t like to experience hunger pangs, but God actually encourages them, at least spiritual hunger pangs. Spurgeon says, “It is well to have [soul]-longings, and the more intense they are the better. Come, let us not fret because we long and hunger, but let us long and hunger to see God magnified [in our lives].”

On this Thanksgiving night, I’m most thankful not for the lavish feast we consumed today but for the ongoing banquet the Lord offers to anyone who seeks to satisfy soul-hunger through him.

By the way, while I’m speaking of being thankful, the clean-up crew was pretty high on my list, too!

“The Lord satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:9)

* Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith, Daily Readings by C.H.Spurgeon

Mending Mess-ups

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When I was 15, I pulled one too many pranks at summer camp and got sent home by the frustrated director. Although I was more than happy to get out from under his leadership at the time, I dreaded telling my parents what had happened, knowing they’d be angry with me.

The days that followed were full of tension as my folks laid out disciplinary restrictions, and worst of all, they made me apologize to the camp director for my bad behavior. Because he and his wife were friends of my parents, I had caused some significant embarrassment.

All of us mess up once in a while, or as in my case, more frequently. We misjudge situations, base our opinions on false information, act immaturely, or snap at people, all because we want our own way.

How does God feel when we act like this? Surely he’s disappointed, disgusted, even angry. But I have a hunch he holds out hope that with enough mess-ups, we’ll learn how to do better next time. One thing is sure: he doesn’t love us any less when we behave badly. Scripture uses the words “unfailing love” over 40 times to describe the way God loves us. This kind of love is trustworthy, consistent, and sure. And best of all, our mess-ups can’t possibly erode it.

My former camp director and I eventually bumped into each other many years after he sent me home… 47 years, to be exact. Truth be told, I’d felt badly about my behavior those many years and was grateful for the chance to mend the relationship. But while I was thinking of what to say to him, he beat me to it, asking if I would forgive him for sending me home from camp. And he said it in front of 250 people.

I followed that by asking him if he would forgive me. Before our very public conversation ended, we were both laughing, a sure sign that our messy history had been all cleaned up. Although it took nearly 5 decades to straighten it out, I’m pretty sure God was laughing that day, too, right after he’d breathed a great big sigh of it’s-about-time.

The camp director and I kept communicating for quite a while after our conversation and actually became sincere friends, surely the result of God’s loving work within both of us.

As for my parents, their love for me remained unfailing, too. My poor behavior hadn’t eroded it, and once that summer was over, they never brought up the incident again.

“Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)

 

A Good God

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Last weekend we marked the 21st anniversary of my father’s death in 1991. Dad was a late bloomer. He dated only one woman and didn’t get started on that project until his 40’s, but that slow start never disadvantaged him. He and Mom made it to their 50th anniversary, and I remember well the party we planned for them.

Several members of their original wedding party from 1941 were able to join us, bringing their remembrances with them. Granddaughters modeled Mom’s wedding gown and a bridesmaid’s dress, and a Chicago bakery recreated their wedding cake. The celebration was like an exclamation point at the end of a good marriage, because the very next month God called Dad to heaven.

Whenever something happens with unusual timing like that, it’s probably God’s way of getting our attention. He orchestrates things purposefully and hopes we’ll learn from it. What message might have been buried within the unusual timing of Mom and Dad’s 50th anniversary being followed so quickly by Dad’s death?

One lesson might be the importance of waiting to make big decisions until God gives the green light. When Dad’s 20’s and 30’s were passing him by, he could have panicked, wondering if he’d ever find the right girl. Would he miss out on married love, a home with children, grandchildren?

Marriage is a decision of considerable consequence, and Dad wisely waited until all indicators pointed to the right time and the right woman. But marrying at 42 made it seem unlikely he and Mom would reach their 50th. God, however, said, “Just watch me.” Dad’s late start had been the Lord’s perfect choice after all.

A second thing we can learn from the timing of Dad’s death is that God has control of our calendars. We write and rewrite them, but God makes last- minute rearrange- ments whenever he chooses. So we learn it’s a good idea to remember whose endorsement we should seek before we make our plans.

One last thing we can learn from the Lord’s timing with Dad is that God is good. Scripture tells us God delights in giving gifts to his children, and Dad’s making it all the way to the 50th was one of them. The trick for us now is to remember that the God-is-good character quality is still a part of God, even when his gifts might seem few and far between.

Our Lord doesn’t change. He was a good God before 1991, has been good since then, and will be good throughout eternity. If he does or doesn’t show that to us, it has no effect on whether or not it’s true. God himself put it best when he said, “I am who I am.”

Dad’s been gone a long while, and sometimes we think it’s a shame he’s missed 21 years of family life. But of course he’s having his own special good times in God’s family, where the Lord’s goodness can be visualized every single day.

“No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11)