June 17, 2002
CYBERCOLUMN:
Are you satisfied?
___By Barry D. Simpson
___In 1974, Blood Sweat & Tears sang, "Are you satisfied—tell me, tell me, are you satisfied?" Not a bad question to ask.
___At least BS&T was still asking. The Rolling Stones had already given up when they sang, "I can't get no satisfaction, 'cause I try and I try." Even from their perch atop the worldwide pop music industry, they couldn't get what they wanted.
___Jesus promised that if we ask, we will receive; if we knock, it will be opened; if we seek, we will find (Matthew 7:17-18). He said whatever we askin his name, we will receive.
Berry D. Simpson
___In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave us a suggestion of the type of things he'd like us to ask for. In fact, if we follow his advice and ask for righteousness, two things will happen: He'll bless us, and we will be satisfied by what we receive. Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." So there is an answer to Blood Sweat & Tears' question. If you want to be satisfied, seek the right things.
___Of course, we seek all kinds of things. Paul Revere and the Raiders sang, "I'm hungry for those good things, baby, hungry through and through. I'm hungry for that sweet life, baby, with a real fine girl like you." They were hungry, but their hunger was motivated by selfishness, not righteousness. Jesus wasn't talking about hunger and satisfaction in a flippant or pop-music way.
___The verse says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst"—two very significant motivations for human beings. Our instinct to eat and drink eventually trumps our desires for money, for fame, for sex, for life itself. If a situation gets desperate enough, people will risk everything for the opportunity to eat or get a drink of water.
___I myself have never been hungry for more than a few hours my entire life. In fact, I am embarrassed to say, I have spent many more hours in discomfort because I ate too much than in hunger waiting for my next meal. Even in my short experiments with fasting, I have never really been hungry. I have been blessed by God to live in a time and a place where hunger has never been a major concern. Like most Americans, I am more troubled by too many calories rather than too few.
___I once read "Grey is the Color of Hope," a memoir by Irina Ratushinskaya, a political prisoner (actually, a poet) sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet camp in Siberia. She described the pains of permanent hunger, how it dominated every thought. She was so hungry that she considered eating rats to be good fortune. All day long, all night long, hunger was all she could think about.
___That is the kind of hunger I think about when I read Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." I think of a desire to live righteously as the dominating motivation, a never-ending quest, a hunger that is not satisfied by simple change in behavior. A hunger that can only be satisfied as a gift, a blessing, from God. A hunger that makes life more full, not empty. A hunger that produces results, not a reminder of what will never happen.
___It's a hard hunger to cultivate because we are selfish. Rich Mullins sang: "Surrender don't come natural to me. I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want, than to take what You give that I need." We would rather be hungry for our own stuff, our own hand-picked food, rather than for what Jesus offers.
___Jesus never promised the Christian life would be easy, only that it was worth it. And that he would help. If we hunger for his righteousness, we will be satisfied.
___ Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.
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