“Our lips are dry. Our stomachs growl.”
John 4:6-14, John 6:48-51
Theme: Filling the Hunger! Quenching the thirst!!
We have an entire life style of repeatedly getting our needs met. Even something basic like having milk to drink, has a repeatable routine that helps us ensure that we satisfy our need for a beverage the kids will drink, that wets our cereal, and that provides for some of the nutrition that our bodies need. When we run out, we might put it on our shopping list, then search it out in the store, buy it, bring it home and consume it. Here’s the interesting thing— that no matter what beverage or how much of it we consume, at some point we will become thirsty again!
This is why we need to recognize when…”Our lips are dry. Our stomachs growl.”
Have you seen the commercial that depicts a lifestyle where people only need to have one of something to meet our lifetime need of it? It makes quite a statement, except for the fact that I can’t remember (or don’t care to remember) what they are advertising. But it does a lovely job of capturing our imagination about what life would be like to only need one apple to benefit from its nutrients and feel satisfied. Or one spear of asparagus — our daughter Sofia would love that, since asparagus is on her list of least favorite foods. The one I like the best is when the woman goes to an exercise class and does one sit up and then gets up and walks out of class with the core strength she needs to support her upper body well into her 90’s.
Yet we know this is not our human plight—we will always need to repeat the process of eating when we get hungry again, repeatedly doing the things that help us stay healthy.
This is why we need to recognize when… “Our lips are dry. Our Stomachs growl.”
Go a bit deep than our physical needs and consider our need for meaning.
Tabloids, news reels, & Facebook, can feed our minds with proverbial junk food. But even resources of substance have a shelf life. This past week, when scientist found the new planet Kepler-452b, I doubt that their curiosity was completely satisfied. In fact, it likely spurred on an entire new level of desire to KNOW MORE! Think of how many scientists will have sleepless nights thinking about their unfinished work instead of feeling complete in their discovery. But on a more serious note, we know that we live in a world where meaning is missing from our daily diet for purpose. We are painfully aware of how humanity is so starved for meaning that we will let ourselves be seduced into cheap versions of fulfillment that waste our time, our talent, our opportunity to know our value without question.
This is why we need to recognize when…”Our lips are dry. Our stomachs growl.”
