Hunger with a side of thirst

Sometimes I am amazed at what triggers people's indignation. I see people who worry about the slightest signs of poor workmanship or damage in products they are purchasing, and my mind goes to the poorest of poor that I have lived among. Yes, my time among them was short, and I always knew I was not staying, but still it was not possible to miss how most of the very poor were at peace with the little that they had.

I have been thinking about the numerous times I have been reminded of how much we have living in a first world country. I have some friends that spent a year in South America on a mission and when they came back to the US they spent about 4 hours in the supermarket just getting used to the selection, the amazingly low prices, and the quantity.

People in this country who have home gardens of any size, for the most part, do not have them for the same reasons people in third world countries have them. In third world countries that little garden may mean either food on the table or going hungry. When people here talk about their gardens it is usually coupled with an explanation of how relaxing and peaceful gardening is to them. I doubt very many eat from gardens here because it is necessary or cost effective.

I think we in this country (again I am speaking in the general sense, I realize there are people starving in this country) don't have a good base for understanding hunger. I would say the biggest hunger that goes unsatiated would be the hunger for real care, true compassion and honest love. I don't find too many really hungry for food. Yes they are out there. But the real lack of hunger that I encounter on a continual basis is the hunger for understanding of who we are and why we are here. Most people don't look deep enough inside of themselves to ever question what life really means.

If you want to perform your own experiment, try asking people you meet this question, "What is it that you would not live without?"

If they answer anything but a right relationship with their creator, the answer indicates they don't have a hunger for the most important thing in life.

Because I am a Christian, further defined as a Wesleyan Christian with a divine evolutionary mindset, I live by the knowledge that everything we know about is the direct result of a divine creator. If someone created me, as I believe, then I would think that my greatest goal would be to understand as well as can be this creator and how my relationship should look to that Creator.

I know I have said it before, and pretty much wore it out, but again, for anyone who hasn't been with me since the outset, this blog is simply a place for me to put my thought processes down. It is not meant to influence anyone. If it does, I hope it only influences them to read beyond and behind the scriptures that have become Canon for all Christians world wide. I advocate the Wesleyan tradition because I believe it most closely follows what Jesus intended. Calvinist miss the point of grace and misconstrue soul security in my opinion. I won't judge another when they step outside my boundaries, but I can't step out of those boundaries and keep my salvation. And yes, I have grieved the Holy Spirit with things I have permitted in my life. There are others who have observed me at close range and know my flaws. And just because I no longer engage in those aberrations does not permit me to throw stones. I sometimes speak out about things I see as oppositional to Christian influence, but I will not label those so engaged as sinners. It is not my place.

The more I hunger, the hungrier I want to be.