Are You Dying of Starvation

In my lifetime I have met people that are physically hungry, spiritually starving, and emotionally emaciated. I'm not sure which is worse, I suppose at any given time they all have serious consequences. As we prepare to embark on a journey pause for a moment to see if you are hungry. 

The hike was 7 miles through rough terrain. We were a diverse group of people from all walks of life, each one seeking to find themselves on this epic trail in the middle of nowhere. We took the essentials we needed to somewhat ensure that we would, at a minimum have a safe trek. As we started the climb up towards Wolf Creek Pass I noticed the middle age lady slightly ahead of me struggling. Beings the group had spread out somewhat I was able to engage her in conversation. I offered my assistance, at which point she graciously declined. We did however exchange names. For the next couple hours we battled the elements while enjoying some small talk. Around mile 4 the terrain became almost impassable, however we knew that we had to press on or we would not make our goal before sunset. We did decide to pause long enough to rest our legs and grab a snack. 

It was during this break that I realized how hungry Beth was. It wasn't the lack of food that she was yearning for, it was the lack of fire in her soul that was literally starving her heart to death. She was raised in a small town evangelical church. Each week, she said, the preacher would yell and scream and remind each one of them how bad they fell short. She said that she hated Sunday because of how terrible it made her feel. As she grew up she drifted from church to church, she would tell me, never finding the spiritual nourishment others talked about. She finally came to the realization that her soul must be disconnected from the God of love that created our universe. As the conversation deepened she shared with me the failures and disappointments of her two marriages. She cast no blame, actually she took responsibility for neither working out. She said it was her emotional hunger and spiritual deprivation that caused her to see only the negative in the world. This journey today, she said, was to hopefully give her mind, body, and soul, the spark it needed to bring some fire back into her life. She was seeking to be fed. 

No question we all have to have food to survive and thrive. But what many people do not understand is just how important spiritual and emotional nourishment is to our human existence. If I may, I would like to ask you something, do you find yourself constantly seeking and FINDING all the negative the world has to offer? In that quest to find the lowest of the low I would bet that your mind absorbs and becomes what it is filled with. Your emotional starvation is exacerbated by your own actions. You don't realize that positive food is at your fingertips yet the addictive nature of the negative CRACK has you tied down and locked up. Once you fall prey to this episode in life it can be extremely difficult to find your way out. The old saying "misery loves company" doesn't even come close to doing this justice. Once you deprive your body of wholesome emotional food, your mind convinces you that your only mode of survival is to keep filling yourself with negative content that drives you further in the ground. Before you know you have lost all hope and you only see the world through blurred lenses of cynicism and hate. 

As you well know, there are times you walk into church simply out of duty, there are others time you go just for the social aspect of being there, then there is that rare occasion that you truly need to be spiritually fed. Here in lies the problem. When you approach the spiritual smorgasbord of  life it can become extremely complex to know what feds your soul and what starves it. As you approach the table your senses become enhanced. It all looks and smells so good, but what will settle on your stomach and what might be rejected. Many will graciously tell you exactly what you need to be spiritually fed, but the real answer is not so simple. For my friend Beth, she basically had a lifetime of choosing the wrong food to nourish her soul. Sure she went to church, read the Bible, attended Sunday School, volunteered in the community, but her spiritual self was STARVING TO DEATH. No one saw and no one seemed to care. They all had the same cookie cutter answers all the while forgetting that God made us all as individual and unique as the snowflake. 

We decided to get moving again so we could arrive at camp by sunset. For the first time in years, she said, her mind was open, and her heart was warm. She said that, just talking to someone that would listen was something she was not accustomed too. It was then and there that I noticed my soul warming up. My mind and heart begin to send me signals that maybe just maybe I was starving too. Somehow someway God brought two people together on the same trail in life that both needed a change in spiritual and emotional diets. We didn't know each other before nor would we ever see other again. I do believe with all my heart that Beth found the food she needed that would wake up the sleeping giant that had lied dormant for years. Just being in the elements with like minded people seeking out the God of love taught us all that the food from heaven was always at our fingertips. It was our choice what we put in our heart, mind, soul, and body. 

The next day I departed that hike and headed home. As I drove I noticed that my thoughts were heading in a new and happier direction. No longer did I think about the bitterness that I felt was taking over our world, I began to consider that maybe LOVE was the driving force that could feed us for life. It's hard to put into words in such a short blog the impact that weekend had on me. I met some wonderful people, each seeking and searching for their spiritual bearings. Each lost in his or hers on way yet my guess is, by some divine intervention they found the diet on that trail that would feed them forever. It wasn't the Bible, it wasn't preaching, it was merely a display of love that ONLY comes when people truly accept each other for who they are where  they are. We can never ever experience any semblance of Godly agape love if we spend our energy exploiting the differences we have. It's wonderful not to agree, it's how we grow as humans. Seek to understand and unite, not to divide. 

I would like to leave you with this thought. I wonder how many people I have met in my life that I never saw. Think about that please. Do you see the person behind the sin, the person behind the face, do you even see the person at all. Our halo's do not shine any brighter than anyone else's, and it just might be that our lack of love and understanding, our stone cold heart that we have toward's things we do not agree just might be the action that is causing people all around you to starve to death. We all see and read about the toll starvation has on people in third world countries yet we do nothing about it. Closer to home, let's make sure we are never ever the reason someone gives up hope and allows themselves to emotionally and spiritually die. Most of all never give up on yourself. You are God's greatest miracle and without you the world can never meet it's awesome potential.

God Bless

Dale