Spiritual Snicker Bars

"Taste and See that the LORD is Good"  Psalm 34:7-9

Over the past week I have been reading a book called "Having a Mary heart in a Martha world", byJoanna Weaver.  In one of the chapters she was comparing her snacking on a Snicker bar to what we do with getting our spiritual dose with GOD.

I liked her idea so here is an extract from her book.  Her pastor's wife told the story of how one afternoon when preparing food for a big dinner she didn't eat lunch so felt hungry.  She couldn't eat her beautiful dinner as she was full from the snicker bar she had as a snack.

"The Lord spoke to me at that moment" Terri says."He showed me that we often fill our lives with spiritual Snicker bars - things like friends, books, and shopping.  They may be good things, completely innocent things - but when they take the edge off our hunger for God."

Terri's illustration has stayed with me for years because it applies so aptly to my own life.  I constantly fight the tendency to fill the God-shaped hole he created in me with fluffy stuff. I don't like loneliness, so I fill the space with phone calls and social events and trips to the mall - but loneliness as my friend Jeanne Mayo puts it, "God;s call to fellowship with him."  I don't  like quietness, so I fill it up the silence with sitcoms and talk shows, Christian music and CNN- but it was in the quiet of the night that Samuel heard God's voice.

We were designed to be close to God.  Just as our bodies hunger and thirst for food and drink, our spirits hunger and thirst for his presence.  But just as it's possible to bloat our bodies with empty calories we can find ways to pacify our spiritual cravings with out really getting the nourishment we need.  We can fill up with spiritual Snicker bars while all the time our spirits are withering for want of real food.

If you're having a little trouble feeling close to God - or even wanting to draw close - you might want to consider what activities you are using to fill the empty places of your life.  What's taking the edge off your hunger for him?.

Then again, it could be that you just need to starting "eating" the good things of the Lord to find out how spiritually hungary you really are.  You see, spiritual hunger and thrist don't work the same way as our physical needs.  When our physical body feels hunger we eat and our hunger is satisfied.  But spiritually speaking, it isn't until we "eat" that we realize how famished we are.  As we feast at God's table, something strange happens.  We get hungier. Thirstier.  We want more!  WE have to have more.... For even Snicker Bars taste flat in comparison to the sweetness of the Lord's presence.  When you sampled the best of the best, you'll be willing to skip the junk food this world offers in order to have a real sit-down meal with the Saviour.

(Having a Mary Heart in a Martha world. (2000). Waterbook press. pp.69,70)