What are you hungry for? This is more of a metaphorical question, though a cinnamon roll would go really well with the coffee I’m currently drinking. Life is guided by cravings. The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you will crave. Curbing or changing your cravings is one of the first things a person has to do to create a healthier diet. Anyone who has tried to make a major health change knows this is the hardest part. You have to establish new routines, reach for healthier foods, and create the habits that break the old cravings and develop healthy cravings.
We understand cravings when it comes to diet but do you recognize other cravings in your life? Cravings can take on different names: longings, passions, loves, etc. One writer I read often, James Smith, argues well in his book “You Are What You Love,” that we are beings of desire rather than thinking beings. He advocates for creating “rituals of ultimate concern” to point our hearts toward what we need to long for the most. One way to make this a point of reflection in your own life is to take assessment of what you spend most of your time and energy doing. My all time favorite theologian once said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be” (Jesus, Mt. 6:21). We often think of these treasures as something with monetary value but this teaching out of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount points more fully towards the objects of our greatest desire. He goes on to talk about the eye being a lamp to the body and what the eye is focused on will determine whether or not your body has light or darkness.
One metric I’ve tried to use over the years is peace and joy. If I find these two things devoid in my life I try to slow down, take stock of what I’m focusing on, and make changes in where I put my energy. There are things I focus on that are righteous and godly in their intention but my focus fails to be centered on Jesus and my righteous intentions fail to leave me at peace and end up killing the joy in my life. I’ll share an example in my own life. I long to develop a faith community where people from diverse backgrounds put Christ first in their relationships with one another and seek unity in all things. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise since it comes out in my sermons often and I believe it is the central focus of much of the New Testament (and the Old Testament really). This righteous focus sometimes becomes so consuming that it takes my focus off the work of God in people’s lives because they are not as I think they should be in the kind of community I imagine. My ideas of how people should be lead me to be judgmental in my righteous indignation, strip me of my joy and peace, and blinds me to where God is working in their lives. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his small but powerful book “Life Together,” has convicted me multiple times over in this, “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”
I share this personal example because when we think about our longings being in contrast with longing for God we think about the black and white side of “sinfulness” and quickly glance over the struggles in our own lives. What desires do you have for the world in which we live? Has your picture of how things should be ever gotten in the way of you having the love of Christ for others? Has the blurring of your picture of the world angered you, stollen your joy, or left you without peace? When I find myself answering “yes” to these questions, I stop to evaluate if I’m seeking God’s vision for how to view people and the world. How is my prayer life? Is it leading me to greater peace? Does my time with God bring me to greater joy? Over the last year, I’ve struggled a lot with answering these questions honestly. I’ve changed my spiritual practices often to try and create more space for the Spirit to bring peace. Things have gotten better but it takes work. I don’t want to crave the things that make me unhealthy. I want to crave the one thing that brings me life.
This brings me to part of our passage for the week, John 6:35-40:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
In the season of Easter, we remember that we will be raised with him on the last day. But our belief in this promise is demonstrated in how we walk. Do you crave the bread of life? Or do you continue to find yourself growing hungry? What changes are you developing in your life to shape your cravings? If you would like some help with creating spiritually formative practices in your life, send me an email ryan@nodachurch.com. I’d love to help!