"Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh."  

-Luke 6:21

The other day my daughter ran in the front door exclaiming, "Mom, come look! You've got to see this!".  She then lead me to one of the smaller trees in our front yard and pointed out a nest of young birds crying out for food.  Loving to take photographs, you can only imagine how quickly I summoned my camera and began to snap away.  We both stood and marveled at their outstretched necks beckoning nourishment.  How amazing it was to some of God's tiniest creations in their infancy, dependent solely on something greater than themselves in order to sustain their ever so fragile lives.

Fast forward to today and I am downloading the pictures of our discovery and reflecting on the tenacity that these baby birds showed in opening wide their mouths with expectancy that they would be filled and nourished.  It made me think of what we as humans hunger for.  What feeds us?  How and when are we satisfied?  Does our satisfaction last or does it wain as time passes?  I was reminded how, through the years, I've heard the words hunger for God and he will sustain you uttered in sermons, Bible studies and the like.

Hunger.  Hunger?  Hunger!

Hunger is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as craving or urgent need for food or a specific nutrient, an uneasy sensation occasioned by the lack of food, a weakened condition brought about by prolonged lack of food, a strong desire.  The words 'craving', 'urgent', 'uneasy sensation', and 'strong desire' first jump out at me as, like any woman knows, when you hunger for chocolate each of the aforementioned words are just the tip of the iceberg of the myriad of feelings you have.  I chuckle as I reflect on just the other day sending my son to the corner drugstore to fetch some chocolate.  So is this the same hunger, one that will push you to move mountains aside to get what you want, that God is describing in Luke 6:21?  I think not!  While I could probably move a mountain to get a piece of chocolate, I'm pretty sure that the hunger He is describing is one that can only be satisfied by one thing...His word.

His Word...the bread of life!  John 6:35 reads, "Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty".  When we hunger, truly hunger, we will move any obstacle that gets in our way to be fed.  I have to wonder then, have I or do I move any obstacle in order to feast on His words?  I am guilty of too often of getting caught up in the day to day activities and requirements that I don't take the necessary time needed to truly seek Him and what He has to say to me for that day.  I love the quote by Booker T. Washington that says, "Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work."  I think that's where the weeping may come in to play.  Hard work today (truly seeking Him even if it produces pain) will produce good fruit in the future (a time of laughter).

While Luke 6:21 is a pretty straight forward and easy verse to understand, it's not always the easiest to do in the world in which we live.  As I am challenging myself, I also challenge you to take the upcoming summer days to really feast on God's word.  As when I have one piece of chocolate, the tastes is so divine that it makes me crave it even more, the more we feast on God's word, the more we will hunger for it and the more we hunger for it, the harder we will work to move a mountain in order to spend time in it.  May your summer feast be one that will sustain you, not only through the lazy days ahead but also through the crazy and chaotic times that we all have to look forward to.

And so we have arrived...the end of another school year

As I sit here and reflect on yet another school year's end, I can only see my children's childhood slipping away.  I was warned on many occasions that they would grow up quickly, like in the blink of an eye.  Those warnings of time fleeting by was many times ignored even though I could see it happening right before my eyes.  I guess you could have called it somewhat of a self denial of recognizing that soon my children would enter the 'real world' and be faced with the day to day tangles that life presents us all.

However daunting it is that they should have to learn the hard lessons of life, I know that in fact the sooner they learn those lessons, the better off they will be.  And so, as I sit to ponder the end of this school year, I reflect on the life lessons that one can be taught at such a young age.  As a mother, it is my hope and prayer that not only have I met those lessons giving them clear direction but that God will supernaturally use each lesson to draw them closer to His kingdom.

However hard it is for a teenager to always see God working through the lessons of life, in His sovereignty I know that God works all things for good.  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose", Romans 8:28.  I am grateful when my teenagers can see this verse come to fruition and can only hope that as they continue their journey into adulthood, they will hold fast to this very pivotable verse.

Just recently the opportunity arose to teach the lesson that unfavorable things happen even when one has persevered and done the right thing.  Hebrews 12:1 tells us that "since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us".  Now there's a lesson we are all so eager to learn!  (sarcasm intended)

As hard as it is to see your child wronged, it is even harder turning the situation over to God and letting Him do His work.  It's much easier to emphasize the wrong doer's actions and dwell on "the sin that so easily entangles".  The hard part is learning that this race that we call life is purposed by God who sees the whole picture, and we are to run it with an unfailing perseverance in a way that those who are watching our every move can see the reason behind each step that we take.  That reason of course is that we are being set apart by a God who doesn't punish us by tough circumstances but allows them to occur so that we may be fashioned into His likeness.

So, as another school year comes to a close, I sit and reflect on the life lessons being taught, some through some not so pleasant circumstances.  I could say that it's only my teenagers being taught these lessons, but I myself am also learning some as well.  I guess you could say that you're never too young and never to old to learn lessons through that which life deals us.  On many occasions I would rather turn in the cards dealt and ask for a new hand, but I know that while the new hand of cards dealt may seam better than the previous one, it will still hold a multitude of challenges of its own.

May God continue to work through "everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles" and may we see His glorious face shine as we each set out to run this race called life.