Hungry?

In the sermon I delivered last Sunday, I talked about our thirst -- what yearnings does God place within us? I think our thirst for God is cross-shaped. We desire a closer relationship with him -- the vertical element. We long to become that which God has created us to be. When we are at the intersection of the crossbeams -- at the place where God meets humanity -- we meet God, and we are transformed by his grace. We also desire community as God created it to be -- the horizontal element -- reaching out toward each other.

I found a quote in my email today, sent by Verse and Voice:

Most of us have to taste our need in a fierce sort of way before our hungers jar us into turning our lives over to God.... In the Divine Arms we become less demanding and more like the One who holds us. Then we experience new hungers. We hunger and thirst for justice, for goodness and holiness. We hunger for what is right. We hunger to be saints. Most of us are not nearly hungry enough for the things that really matter. That’s why it is so good for us to feel a gnawing in our guts. by Macrina Wiederkehr in A Tree Full of Angels

I wondered, as I read it, if what Wiederkehr describes as our hunger is cross shaped, as well. Our new hungers, she says, are:

• We hunger to be saints, for holiness -- I think that is the transformational part of thirst. We hunger to be changed.
• We hunger and thirst for justice, for goodness -- isn't that the horizontal element? We hunger for God's kingdom to come for those around us.
• She says that we will experience this hunger from God's embrace -- the vertical element -- our relationship with God.

It's good to be hungry for what is really important.

Image: Sunset on the way to Common Grounds last night.