Hunger And Thirst

Not very long ago there was a fad that was sweeping the country like a wild fire. People where doing it everywhere. In the cities as well as in the country.

I mean it was so wide spread that if you were 100 miles from nowhere and you happened to encounter someone driving by chances are you’d probably see them doing it too.

The craze that I’m talking about is that of bumper stickers. You can still see them around today. In fact I’ve got two on my car and I know that some of you do as well.

Let me just read to you a few of the more interesting ones that I have come across.

“Age is a matter of the mind, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.”

“Give without remembering, take without forgetting.”

“Some people are discovered others are found out.”

“A mistake not corrected is another mistake.”

“There is no right way to do the wrong thing.”

“Opportunity is disguised as hard work.”

“Be what you wish others to become.”

“God is only a prayer away.”

But of all the bumper stickers which I have come across, I have yet to find one that says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied.”

And I believe that if someone were to print up a bumper sticker with those words on it, it would not be a big seller. I just don’t think it’s an idea that a lot of people would really want to buy into.

And the reason for that is because we just can’t see how one could consider someone to be Happy / Blessed, if he is hungry and thirsty.

You see, being hungry and thirsty , , at least in this country , , is seen as a problem, not as a blessing or something to be happy about.

We think that hunger and thirst are a social dilemma that needs to be eradicated. When we see people of other countries on television who have to live with hunger and thirst everyday of their lives, we feel sorry for them.

At times we may be so overwhelmed that we have to turn the channel to keep from being upset. It is sad to know that people live like that.

When you see on television or in the streets people who are hungry and thirsty, do you see it as a problem or is it something to be happy about/

What about when the person who has had nothing to eat or drink for days, comes knocking on your door, do your feelings suddenly change?

Is it your comfort zone or your compassion that begins to stir? Is it security you begin to worry about or the service you can provide this stranger.

You see, from a distance, hunger and thirst can stir up within us feelings of pity, compassion and sympathy.

But when it comes a little closer to home , , when we can actually reach out and touch it , , we would rather not have to deal with it.

Hunger and thirst are only words. But Words are powerful. And that is why Jesus chose to use these two words in Matthew 5:6 where he says:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied.”

Hunger and thirst are words which can seem very strange for many of us who live in a country that is abounding with left-overs and a surplus of everything that we could want.

Just to illustrate this fact, did you know that every Tuesday morning at 6:00am Doug Davis goes to the Houston food bank at collects, at least a couple of hundred pounds of surplus food, for free. It’s given away.

Or

Did you know that in this city of 20,000 inhabits there are over 150 establishments where you could walk in on any normal business day and purchase food or something to eat?

Hunger and thirst are words which we often use to describe what we do not want to be. And maybe the reason for that is because we know what the words hunger and thirst mean.

But if you didn’t, all you would have to do is look up hunger and thirst in a dictionary and you would be able to find out their definitions and if you did that, you would end up with a pretty good idea as to what they mean.

But you see, there is a world of difference between defining a word and experiencing a word.

For instance the word pain can mean something very different to a person who has never suffered harm or injury a day in their lives , , than it would for a person who has passed through a furnace of physical agony.