“Mr. Davis, don’t you want to complete your meal before you eat your dessert?” I was not aware that Jell-O was dessert, but Mrs. Harris, my fifth grade teacher, viewed it that way. She was determined that we all learn manners while in her class. My friend Tommy asked a question that must have impressed our teacher: “Mrs. Harris, may I retire to the lunch line to retrieve some butter to refresh my potato?” Tommy’s language ability soared far beyond mine.
Actually, my mom had already taught her children to finish a meal before eating dessert. To this day, I follow the practice, but I’ve realized the reason goes beyond the rules. If I eat sweets, I lose my appetite for nutritional food. I have a friend who always eats dessert first, so all people are not the same, but ‘hunger’ is necessary for me.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) What if one of the devil’s strategies in this world is to feed people with things that eliminate the ‘hunger for righteousness’? I heard an evangelist from South Africa once say he never wanted to speak in the West because there was no hunger for God. In the villages where he preached in the nations of southern Africa, he witnessed an intense desire to hear God’s Word among the multitudes who had never heard the Gospel.
Do I ever get so ‘filled up’ with sports or politics or work or pleasure that I have no desire for God? It is not that it is wrong to work or to have fun or to play a sport… it is all about where we find our fulfillment. Though I want no person to go through the trials of cancer, ‘life and death’ situations do have a way of clearing the mind of things that don’t really matter. After diagnosis seventeen years ago, I remember thinking: “Why are all these people so consumed with their college team on game day? Don’t they realize one day they are going to die?” But the further I got away from the most critical stages, the more ‘game days’ returned to more of a normal phenomenon.
We hunger for what we desire. God wants us to hunger for Who we need. The Holy Spirit can produce this longing in any soul, but I think we must learn to see with eternal eyes. A huge bonus only satisfies for a season; a big win is only remembered a little while; the pleasures of life are fleeting. But if we hunger for righteousness and discover that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment, we shall be filled. As He brings about His focus, perhaps we’ll help others realize Who truly satisfies our hunger.
“It is because of Him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’” I Corinthians 1:30-31