I am a little hungry - how about you?

Jesus: I am the bread that gives life. If you come to My table and eat, you will never go hungry. Believe in Me, and you will never go thirsty.  (John 6:35 VOICE)

One of my favorite things in life is a good loaf of crusty French or Sourdough bread - especially if it is hot from the oven and slathered in butter! It has been almost six months since I have "indulged" in such a treat because I made a conscious decision to watch what I allowed into my body. I have not gone on any radical diet or anything - just good choices and more reasonable portions. I still like bread and even long for it on occasion - but I haven't really given into that longing because I know once I get started, I will want more! That is kind of how it is with Jesus - get one good "taste" of his grace and you just keep going back for more!

I live in the desert, so you can understand why I appreciate a good drink of cold water. Yet, I have visited more exotic places, rich with island growth, and complete with humidity in the 80's or 90's! I think I wanted a good cold drink of water more in the humid portions of this world more than I did in the desert! Why? Maybe because my body was longing for refreshing - it was worn out by the humidity since it was not used to it. It is like a load had been placed on my body which I just found it hard to bear. I am a desert girl through and through, so any other type of climate that "taxes" my body like high humidity makes it kind of hard for me to get acclimated. In much the same way, the emotional weight this world wants to put on us will wear us down - it is hard to acclimate to carrying what it is we were never intended to carry!

Jesus tells his disciples that if they come, they must eat. It is not enough to know where the water is, or where it is we will find the grace we so desperately need. We must partake of it if we are to ever enjoy the satisfaction it can provide - not just once, but over and over again. We might be in the middle of a desert, smack-dab in the humid conditions of the jungle of life, or under a whole load of guilt and shame we didn't want in the first place - but Jesus is the place of refreshing, the one who lifts the load, and the only way we find the way to real freedom out of where it is we find ourselves. We cannot long for anything "better" or more "fulfilling" than his grace and love - it is just impossible for anything else to actually replace either of these.

We may not always feel like eating or drinking, but the truth of the matter is that the human body was made to do both - without either of these, we begin to "waste". Our bodies begin to consume themselves - we deplete the storehouse of energy our body maintains. We often go a long, long time without connecting with Jesus at the table of his grace - much longer than we ever should. It may not be until we actually feel ourselves emotionally or spiritually "wasting" that we realize we haven't "eaten" in a while! When we do realize it - it is time to sit down at the table and just eat/drink it all in. Just sayin!