Spiritual Hunger

In a few weeks I am getting up in front of church to share about a time that God satisfied a spiritual hunger. Since I am more of a writer than a talker, I figured I'd give it a dry run here. So here it goes:


Have you ever gone so long without food that you forget you are even hungry? Usually if I go too long without eating, I get pretty cranky. This same sort of thing happened to me in a spiritual sense when I was in high school.

I have always been a Christian, but Jesus hasn't always been my Lord. There was a time in junior high and early high school that I knew I needed to take my faith seriously and I knew I needed to give my life fully to God, but something - I don't know what exactly - was holding me back. I was definitely hungry, but wasn't bothering to eat. And frankly, I was getting a little cranky.

Round about my sophomore year in high school, God started trying to get my attention. He was trying to show me that I was spiritually hungry and that He was the only thing that would satisfy that hunger. I started hanging out with different friends, ones who cared more about the things of God. This started to pique my interest in spiritual things, but I still didn't realize how hungry I truly was. In about February of that school year, my youth pastor started bugging me about going with the youth group to winter camp. I told him I couldn't because I was playing basketball at school, and we would be in the middle of playoffs, so I couldn't go. But he stayed persistent.

Well, winter camp was about a week away, and my basketball team was in the middle of playoffs, but then something unexpected happened. We lost. The Tuesday before the youth group was to leave for camp, we lost. Our season was over. I now had the weekend free. So at the last minute, I signed up for winter camp.

That weekend proved to be a life-changing one for me. God met me on that mountain top. I realized how hungry I was, and that if I asked, God would satisfy that hunger. And He satisfied indeed. I recommitted my life to Christ that weekend.

Now, it certainly hasn't been smooth sailing since then. He never promised it would be. But I have found to source of true satisfaction. I get hungry quite a bit, but don't always eat as often as I should. But He is there, ready to give me my fill when I come and ask.