Ravenous

Our church has been fasting together this week. Yeah, it's a little weird, like most spiritual things, but it's biblical. I think that anytime you do something out of the ordinary then it gives opportunity for the extraordinary. So, we are interrupting our routines hoping that God will do whatever He wants to do. We are huddled on a slippery precipice, looking foolish in order to see something amazing. The expectancy is raw and electric.

God hasn't done any magic tricks yet. Nothing phenomenal has happened so far, at least nothing visible. At church, we sing about fire a lot, but so far nobody has spontaneously combusted. One time, the fire alarm went off during a Sunday morning, perhaps God was taking us literally. Anyway, if people want a good firework display then they should go to Disneyland. The fireworks there are crazy awesome, full of lasers and fireballs and a flying Tinkerbell. But it seems like God rarely works like that. Even when people claim to be healed of something, usually you can't really see it. And when someone is born again, they usually look pretty much the same on the surface, except that there is an air of love and peace about them that wasn't there before. It seems that God is more concerned with what is happening underneath it all. He's always been preoccupied with the condition of hearts. He wants to go deeper than surface level symptoms. He wants changed hearts, not just good ratings. This week, the tone of many prayers has been that of heartfelt yearning. Yearning for God-knows-what, just something that only God could do.

I know for me, my growling hunger pangs for God have been louder than usual. I think it all starts there. With desire. We must first nurture the desire for more. We will not see God do miraculous things with us if we don't desire it. And in order to love madly, we first desire to love. Our passions for earthly things must me rerouted toward God. That is why we cannot serve two masters. Our passion is so one tracked, it's more like obsession. We feed our imaginations until they find an open door into reality. In the end, our deepest desires navigate us. That is why we are fasting. Of course, eating food is not bad. But we slave for the whims of our flesh all too much, and sometimes we must remind our flesh that it is not our God. We prove that Jesus is our first love when we are willing to give up other loves for Him. It would be ridiculous to have girls hanging on both my arms and tell them each that they are the only one for me. Love is never content with halfheartedness. What if we became obsessed with God? There's really only one alternative. . .