Our current Sunday morning sermon series is on the Beatitudes in the book of Matthew, and this morning we looked at "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied."
Our pastor started with a question: "Can you think of a time when you were ravenously hungry or desperately thirsty?"
I thought long and hard, entirely missing the next few minutes of the sermon. I remembered recent times I thought I "was starving." I remembered diets and fasts I endured. I remembered college days when I pulled all-nighters to work on a term paper, putting aside food and other luxuries until I finished. I recalled working in my dad's 2-acre garden in the hot sun, wishing for lunch or a cold drink of water. I ransacked my memory banks all the way back to my childhood.
And I decided something. I decided that never have I ever...been desperately hungry or thirsty. Never. What does that say about me?
It says I had parents who loved me and fed me, even when money was tight. I remember a short period of time as a 10-year-old girl when my dad was unemployed. It was summertime, and our garden was in full harvest, which was a good thing for us. He went hunting every day, and if he killed a quail or a squirrel or a rabbit, we had meat for supper. If he didn't, we ate vegetables from our garden. Many were the nights when I stood at the sink with my mom cleaning the last buckshot out of a rabbit before flouring it to fry it up for dinner, thankful for the meat we had that night.
But the fact remains: I have never been desperately hungry or thirsty. That speaks volumes about me. It says I am blessed to live in a wealthy country, where most of our citizens are well-fed and lack nothing. It says I have a reasonable ability to look ahead and save for immediate needs. Most of all, it says that God has prospered me abundantly with things I take for granted every day.
It says I am blessed.
Never have I ever. Thank you, Lord.
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