He’s hungry.  I can see it in his eyes.  I can see it in the way he carries himself.  He doesn’t seem to relax.  He’s all uptight.  Like he’s fighting a battle within.  And he is.  He may not know it.  But he is.

He’s looking for something to satisfy his longing.  He’s wanting a taste of goodness that will relieve the emptiness he’s feeling.  He’s searching for peace, contentment, joy.  He’s looking for love. Everlasting love.  He’s looking in the wrong place.

He’s been hungry for a long, long time. Perhaps all his life. He hasn’t known it though.  Sometimes hunger appears in different forms.  Sometimes relieving hunger is not easily satisfied.  Sometimes what looks like relief only causes more hunger.

He’s filled his hunger with things.  Career.  Money.  Hobbies.  Sports.  Time share.  Good things.  But not satisfying things.  He’s looking for love in all the wrong places.  He’s looking for fulfillment where he’ll never be filled.

Sometimes thirst feels like hunger.  The stomach feels empty.  The thing that will truly satisfy is a long slow drink of cool clear water.  Hunger and thirst are both an emptiness looking to be filled.

Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.  Revelation 22:17

I can’t say I’m any different.  I once had that same hunger.  That hunger was filled when I met God.  But I’m still hungry.  Hungry for more.  Hungry for an eternal fulfillment.  I’ve had a longing.  A longing to study God’s word.  To know my heavenly Father intimately.  The thing is.  It takes time.  It takes work.  It takes putting away those temporary things I use to fill my hunger.

I feel the hunger pangs.  I hear my stomach growling. I know the gnawing empty feeling when the things I run after don’t satisfy.  I know what will satisfy.

Oh.  I’ve tried to fill my longings with other things.  Facebook.  Instagram.  Pinterest.  Novels.  Chocolate.  Hobbies.  Things that aren’t evil.  Just fillers.  Temporary pleasures.  Time wasters.  Things that make me long for more.  More of something.  More of something else. Things that take my heart and soul a little further from the call to be holy.  Things that try to replace my hunger to know more of God’s word.

Why do I fight it?  Why do I make sure to cross everything else off my to do list before I spend time with God?  Why?  Why do I do everything else I want to do before satisfying my true hunger?  When I know deep down what truly satisfies.

It seems I reach for that holy book when I’m anxious or troubled.  When I’ve nowhere else to turn, I finally turn to the Book.  The Book that teaches me to release my struggles to my Maker.  The Book that tells me that the hunger I feel can be filled with everlasting peace.  The Book that tells me that my thirst can be quenched by drinking living water from a well that never runs dry.

So I dip my cup into the living water.  I take a bite of the eternal bread of life.  I sense a peace.  A calm.  My thirst is quenched.  My hunger is satisfied.  I am full.  The good thing.  This well never runs dry.  I can come back any time and be filled up again and again.  There is no need to be hungry.  As long as I come back to the One who satisfies.  The lover of my soul.