"For He satisifies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things.” Psalm 107:9
The human heart beats to a rhythm known as “longing.” It is this rhythm that so much of our society has learned to captitalize on and, in turn, make a profit from. The consumeristic urge at Christmas is simply another expression of “longing” and an example of our society's ability to leverage that longing into a sale.
It seems that every year our Christmas season gets longer and our Thanksgiving joy gets shorter. In fact this year it was not too deep into November when I began to notice Christmas decorations adorning the hallways of our supermarkets. Last week I even noticed a lawn already decorated with the fullest of Christmas joy - two weeks BEFORE Thanksgiving. Now I love to decorate our lawn and Melissa loves to decorate our home, but two weeks before Thanksgiving is a little much. Some might argue that its okay to get into the Christmas spirit a bit early. In fact, such a course might even help us extend that good old Christmas cheer a few more weeks this time around.
However, I have a hunch (though I could be wrong) that such a pursuit of Christmas cheer might actually be another expression of the longing we sense in our hearts that we all too often seek to fill with resources that leave us wanting yet again. After all, it was not all that long ago that we celebrated last Christmas. The longing was satiated, if ever so briefly, and then we got back to the real world and had the thrill of paying those credit card bills that purchased our satisfaction. Of course, this just lead us to another longing … one to be able to pay the bills and perhaps even a sense of regret over resources misspent on a longing unfulfilled.
There are, however, times when we do leave the table satsified. I suspect that for many of us this will be the case come next Thursday. We will not only leave the table satisfied, but we may even have enough left over to satisfy ourselves again later that night and even on into the next day. I, for one, look forward to that opportunity! I love the gathering of family I haven't seen in years and the opportunity to laugh, pray, converse and just be with them for a short period of time. Yes, in that moment - in those moments - there is a sense of satisfication. There is a sense of contentment. That is a what I call a right way to fill up. That type of filling comes from the depth of our human relationships. It comes from the love we share, the hope we have, and the joy we take in being with one another.
Yet there remains a problem even with this type of filling up. The problem is that we will hunger yet again. You see, you and I were made to hunger. You and I were made to desire and to long for things in this life. What we were not made to do or what we were not made for is the rat race of satisfication that our temporary world over-sells and under-delivers day in and day out. We were not made to jump on the hamster wheel and run longer in our pursuit of satisfaction. No, our longing was made so that we might find ultimate relief and hope from the hand of God and Him alone!
As we move into another holiday season, as we embark upon another Thanksgiving and celebrate another Christmas, let's not forget that the attempts to fill ourselves with temporary resources will prove to be just that - temporary. Let's not forget that there is a resource Whose well never runs dry and Whose ears never grows deaf! There an endless resource and, as the Psalmist reminds us, He truly and finally fills the longing of the human soul and satisfies the hunger within!
Celebrate Thanksgiving this week by longing for God and His resource in the midst of a land full of false hopes and temporary remedies!
See you Saturday night for our Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Wekiva High School. Bring a friend, neighbor, and/or family member, and let's kick off this season by longing for God together!
Grace and Peace!
Biz
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