Dear friends in Christ
In my experience as a priest, I have discovered that if you want anything to happen spontaneously, then you need to organise it.
Dr. Paul Siaki once said “The height of insanity is to do the same old things the same old way and expect different results”. I think this is our own GAD (General Anglican Disease).We all have a natural, innate appetite for God and spiritual things, but we may not be experiencing the sensations that would tell us that we are hungering for Him. Why not? Maybe it’s because we have been depriving ourselves of spiritual food for way too long. Are we refusing to feed ourselves spiritually? How often do you pray or read your Bible? If we don’t actively seek God and instead ignore this yearning from deep inside, cravings can, and do, eventually change and disappear.
When we are physically hungry, our bodies send us signals through our hunger pangs and cravings that tell us we need to eat. If ignored, these signals at first grow stronger in hope of pushing us to fulfil the need for food. But if we continue to ignore this appetite for long enough, it will eventually begin to fade and we can actually convince ourselves that we really aren’t hungry anymore. That is exactly what the anorexic does. One tells him/herself I’m not hungry and ignores the signal the body is sending. Eventually one will have completely numbed the cravings to the point that we no longer desire food. We have so effectively convinced ourselves that we are not hungry that our bodies are now starving to death. Yet we don’t even realise the danger.
Hence we need to be honest with ourselves in realising our Spiritual needs. I believe St. Augustine was right when he stated “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, our heart is restless until it rests in you”.
This is how it can be with our spiritual appetite. When we are spiritually hungry, we experience the beckoning of the Holy Spirit within us to feast on the things of God. If we ignore our craving for God long enough, we will find the craving for Him eventually begins to fade and die. We are capable of convincing ourselves that we are doing just “fine,” yet we are starving our spirit to the point of spiritual death.
Our desires for the things of God fade, and we are no longer able to experience the pull of the Holy Spirit because we have so numbed ourselves to His call. Without even noticing it, prayer has become less important, we no longer thirst after God’s Word, and we convince ourselves it’s no big deal to miss church now and again.
Both types of anorexics refuse themselves the nourishment they need to sustain life. The only way for both of them to heal and regain a healthy appetite that will help them grow is to pull up to the table and eat. Are we feasting at the banquet table of God? If we want to cultivate and grow our spiritual craving, we must feed it. Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good”.
May God bless you all.
Dean Lazarus Mohapi