I have a weakness I must confess. I am an information addict. If there are words visible, I feel a compulsion to read them. When I visit a friend’s home, my first instinct is to check out the bookshelf. I love to read and to learn. But how much time do I really spend reading the Word? As a percentage, it is rather minuscule. An hour a week? Less sometimes? How often do I sit and quietly listen as God calls to me in prayer? Certainly not enough. I am sure my life would be different if I gave God’s word as much effort as I gave my straight-up information addiction.
The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12)
We live in an atmosphere of sensory overload. Everywhere I turn I see advertisements, and screens flickering with attractive images designed to cultivate desire and the secret promise of satisfaction. But I live in a constant state of unsatisfied desire. No matter how much I earn and how much I buy, I am never filled. I eat, only to grow hungry again. I learn only to discover the depth of my ignorance.
Only God can satisfy me as the proper end of my desire. Only God’s love as revealed in Christ can save me from the unending cycle of desire and fulfillment and desire again. In the midst of all this noise, in the cacophony of our culture, my true desire is for the word of the Lord. It is as if there is a famine of it. Even the major religious institutions seem to turn away from the word and promote political agendas and social reform. While these may be legitimate activities, it is the gospel which is the heart of the Body of Christ. It is the gospel I hunger for, and it seems that in my wandering from sea to sea, from north to east; in my running to and fro, I am wont to find it. Has that time come?
We certainly are not experiencing a famine of bread. Nor a thirst for water. America is blessed with abundance never before seen. But how are we sharing that wealth? How are we caring for the poor? How are we living the gospel? A famine indeed.
2 comments:
Flux!
I really enjoyed reading "Still hungry after all these years". It's a breath of fresh air bro. As christians there is only a few things that can breath the breath of "true life" into are ever wandering hearts. Reading and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ are a couple. As you touched in on earlier , there is a seriouse culture war going on in our country. It's probably been going on for a long time, I just have not been looking out into the land with the eye glasses of truth to see it. Everyone wants to be in the middle, not offending anyone, not stepping on anyones toes, casting aside the truth for popularity, and sometimes standing aside the truth for popularity. Jesus Christ clearly drew a line in the sand and said you are either on this side or your on that side. The truth either lives in your heart or it doesn't. Now I know that is a very unpopular view but it is the truth that sets us free. Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow, sometimes the light will hurt your eyes while looking from the darkness. I know I rambled a little off topic but that's how I roll.
Always Politically Incorrect,
RJA
Great work.
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