Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to God. He got you out in the nick of time. Psalm 107:6 (MSG)
Starvation Nation – Satisfaction Series – Part 1
“Some of you wandered for years in the desert, looking but not finding a good place to live, Half-starved and parched with thirst, staggering and stumbling, on the brink of exhaustion.” Psalm 107:4-5 (MSG)
The journey these guys were on was no tip-toe through the tulips.
They were lonely, hungry, thirsty, lost… desperate. And not for a day, or a week, or a month, but for years. It sounds like the writer of this Psalm is referencing the Israelites wandering around in the dessert after their Exodus from Egypt. No home. No food. No water.
Have you ever been driven to the edge of sanity, and beyond it, for want of water or food?
SIDE NOTE: I don’t know what it's like to go for days and weeks not knowing what I’ll put on the table and how. I don’t understand what it's like not to be able to feed my children or provide them with clean water. I listen to the stories of those who do know what it's like. I don’t want to be disconnected from their suffering and pain. I want to be a part of the solution not just an ignorant by-stander, or an indifferent observer. I struggle with the idea that we have Lotto Draws worth millions of dollars while people in our cities and all around the world are starving to death. I’ve heard, and I’m sure you have too, that we have the money and resources, collectively, right now, to end world hunger. (Just think about that for a minute.)
When your body is not getting what it needs to survive, it suffers incredibly. Nausea, dizziness, fainting, weakness, dehydration and more. Eventually, one by one, organs begin to malfunction and fail… It’s torturous.
Although starvation is a physical travesty many are facing around the world, spiritually, on the inside, many are starving too. (Perhaps that's why, even though we have the means to help those in need, we don’t.) Spiritual starvation creeps up on us when we’re not looking while we’re busy doing other things. It sucks us dry until we find ourselves “wandering around in a [spiritual] desert, looking but not finding a good place to live, half starved and parched with thirst, staggering and stumbling, on the brink of exhaustion.”
Yesterday, we wrapped up a series called “Going Through Hell” based on Psalm 23. I think these verses in Psalm 107 tell us what its like when we can’t seem to find our way out of deep darkness, a hellish situation, a desert of hopelessness. Maybe we stumbled into it, or didn’t realise that we were living deeper and deeper into despair.
And this kind starvation can be easily hidden, delaying relief. The more hungry and thirsty we become; the more frantic and panicked we become, the more impaired our vision and stamina becomes, and the spiral spins out of control… ever searching, never finding, always wanting, and not sure where to start looking for relief. We try and ignore the hunger, the ache in our bellies and hearts, to make our lives appear as if we live abundant and fresh. We lie even to ourselves.
I think of things like:
Addictions
Secrets
Vices
Loneliness
Depression
Image
Fortunes
Reputations
Habits
Toxic relationships
All these things and more have the potential to keep us circling the same old issues, wandering around the same old desert, never finding a way out.
Perpetuating our starvation.
That’s a hunger I can relate too.
It takes listening to the longing deep within, that gnawing feeling in the pit of our hearts, the dryness of our spirits, to be able to start finding our way out and through the wastelands.
AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) has great success in empowering people to overcome their addiction. Their 12 step program begins with:
“1 – We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.”
The first step to moving forward is to admit that you’re not moving forward.
It’s often the hardest step. The Israelites in the desert had to come to a place where they surrendered their pride and asked God for help.
Ps 107:6 says, “Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to God. He got you out in the nick of time.”
What is it that you most need to recognise to move forward? Leave us a comment below.
Go to Part 2 – Satisfaction Attraction »
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