Of Hunger and Thirst

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be satisfied."  (Jesus, the Christ)


I imagine my sleeping child, how utterly peaceful; bathed in quiet calm, her features at rest.

Simply beholding a sleeping child, simply remembering the sight of my own children slumbering as infants draws a calm across my soul like a blanket gently laid over tired, aching limbs.

The day is young yet.  The morning sunlight still hasn't reached its peak.  My children sleep in, of course; now they are teenagers.  I don't mind.  They are good kids, and they have been working hard.  There's time for such rest.

What does this have to do with hunger and thirst?  And righteousness?And satisfaction.

A lot.

Rest speaks of fulfillment.  It's what occurs when our bodies are full or have done their work and can do no more.  It's what occurs when our souls are filled, properly.

Hunger and thirst settles into our bones like marrow.  Without them, we would die.

And to not know fulfillment is to sorrow.  Are you sorrowing in any way? In a lot of ways? To know quality satisfaction is to discover a place of rest, and it is a very real, literal place, if but for a time.  Allow me to explain.

The meaning implied in this scripture, to hunger, tells us how we live best.  That is we are "the hungering ones," or those who receive, expend and then hunger afresh.  That's definitive of our lives, or at least it ought to be.

We know what occurs when a person loses their appetite for food, for life.  

We know this like we know we need air to breathe, water to drink, and food for energy. 

But there's something more to be seen.  There is an appropriateness to our desire and the object deserving of it, one that truly fulfills.  Jesus called it "righteousness."

We know that in this world not all air is fit to breathe.  Not all water is potable.  Not all food is healthy.  Nor are all things that glitter, gold.  So, perhaps if we are wise and over time through trial and error, we come to understand that not all things we stretch our hands out to touch properly satisfies longing, or desire, or our inner craving for something more.  Whatever that is.  

I suggest to you that it is righteousness.

We are blessed if we hunger and thirst for that ... but what exactly is righteousness?  As he says it here, at least. (Matthew 5, The Sermon on the Mount)

This is something worth thinking about.  Won't you join me?

Here's a place I'm going to go for help: 1 Corinthians 1:30