The other day, as I sat in my office absorbed in preparing for Vacation Bible School, I noticed my hands started to shake and my thinking getting a bit fuzzy.
This is a rare, but not unusual occurrence for me. It is a sure and certain sign that I am hungry, and my body is craving food.
So, I reached into the credenza behind me and pulled out a snack bar to eat so I could satisfy that physical need and keep on working. Sometimes when I wait too long for a quick snack, it takes a while for the trembling to disappear, but it does eventually. My mind eventually clears, and the work continues.
This made me think of a familiar passage of Scripture. Psalm 42:1-2 states, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”
Deep within each of us is our soul. To reduce it to simplest terms, the soul is the center of life which keeps us connected to God. The soul continuously yearns for a strong tie to God and keeps urging us in that direction.
But most don’t understand what the sense of disquiet is within them. They have a thirst, a yearning, a hunger they try to fulfill, but don’t realize it is the soul seeking a greater connection with God. So attention is given to physical satisfaction: spending money on things, or chasing after unrealistic dreams, or overindulging in foods or chemicals.
What people everywhere are seeking is the soul’s life–giving connection to God. The longing of the soul is crying out in each person to consciously drink deeply of God’s loving presence, to be satisfied in life the only way God can bring about satisfaction.
Once we recognize for what we are longing, the trembling of our heart will cease. The confusion that clouds the mind will be cleared away.
I know when my hands tremble and my thinking gets fuzzy, I need to take in some nourishment.
The soul is the same. It needs the kind of nourishment that comes only from God.
Why not indulge in that true satisfaction? You will find a fulfillment in life for which you have been longing for quite some time.
The Rev. Mark Broadhead is pastor at Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church of Crestview.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Longing for a connection to God