You know when you’ve binged 5 too many nights in a row on ice cream, and then you realize it’s time to stop. So you stop but then you realize you have this insane craving for sweets oh’ at about 8 o’clock every single night.
You find yourself giving in (every time) because (each time) it’s the last.
Mhm me too.
The last 2 months I have been obsessively aware of sugar in it’s 9.76 million forms as I’ve been on a highly restrictive diet to kill off a bugger of bacteria.
Side note friends- the sugary devil is everywhere, in everything.
Here’s the obvious thing we so often forget or maybe we’re just dwellin’ in the realm of ‘ignorace is bliss’ but we are powerful people, given free will, and the responsibility of cultivating craving.
To cultivate craving, based on my experience in areas of ice cream, donuts, and social media, it takes about a week. If I choose to go after something consistently for that many consecutive days, choosing to spend time, money, or both – there’s obviously a high value placed on those things, an importance and desire for. Since those things become important to me, since I desire them they become priority. Let’s say over spinach, peas, and podcasts.
But I don’t want to live off of simple sugars that delight my senses for a moment but never quite satisfy the hunger of my stomach. Let’s be real, I need the spinach in my life.
I need the leafy greens that are filled with the nutrients I need to do all the things I want to do. Like running every morning or practicing yoga until my face is bruised from all the falling. If I don’t fill myself with substance I can’t produce anything of substance.
We’re going to experience hunger everyday of our lives. In the physical. And in the spiritual. This is why what we crave is important. And why what we cultivate is crucial.
God is like a parent in the way that He can’t and doesn’t want to force us to eat our broccoli at dinner. Parents’ can beg and plead but sometimes kids would rather go hungry than eat their vegetables. God’s not going to force feed us scripture. But we’re going to go hungry. Eventually we’ll starve without His voice, Spirit, and guidance.
I go to the table everyday with Jesus. I like spending time with Him. It’s always good. This week the Father has challenged me to consider though- what it is I’m coming to the table for and what I’m leaving with. Am I enjoying the breakfast pastries and leaving with a pocket full? Or am I feasting on the bread of life and leaving with His presence?
What am I hungry for when I wake up, when I go to the table?
Because it’s not any table I am invited to. It’s the table of the Lord of Lords, the King. My appetite should be befitting.
I want to hunger for greater things. I want to hunger for what is sacred. What is holy. What is pure and good.
I want to cultivate a hunger for the divine in my life.
To not be so easily satistifed by what is only simple sugar.
But to seek after what is of substance, truth, and the Spirit; for the glory of God.
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