A culture Starving for God

I thought I'd make my first blog post on the song that started this idea rolling around in my head. A few years ago I was working in the kitchen at a nursing home and someone had brought in a radio and set it on the local top 40 radio station. I was not a big fan of a lot of the music that came on. While washing dishes and doing other busy work I would try to meditate and pray at times when I could. One day I was letting my mind wander and thinking about what God was doing in my life when something caught my attention:

"I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you"

This is the first line in the chorus of Hailee Steinfield's "Starving". Now, this did not grab my attention because I was thinking of a person who sparked my passion per the song's intended mean, but because I realized Hailee was tapping into the desire that we all have to be loved and to feel fulfilled. While the intent of the artist was focused on a more basal meaning of those words, it speaks to something deeper. At some point, we have all felt a longing or desire for being loved/needed or just wanting to find meaning in life. This desire can be so strong to be akin to someone starving.

We all thirst and long for fulfillment but we often look in the wrong places. As Jesus said to the woman at the well "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." John 4:13-14. Hailee is recognizing this thirst, this starved longing of the soul, when she has "tasted" the person who is the object of her song but fails to see the ultimate end of this desire.

Only God, the creator of everything, can truly satisfy this desire, this longing, this starvation. The Psalmists make it abundantly clear with verses like “As the deer pants for the water brooks so my soul pants for thee, O God, for the living God,” (Psalm 42:1-2) and “My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1b)

Great minds throughout the centuries have put this idea into words as well:

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

-St Augustine, Confessions

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” - Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425)

The reality of this craving, this emptiness, can be covered up, drowned out, or so muddled by all the distractions and things of this world that sometimes we can’t even sense it until something really stirs up that longing or we finally admit to ourselves that we are not fulfilled. “I didn’t know that I was starving until I tasted you.” Now the starvation is brought to our awareness and we have to make a choice: fill it with whatever made us aware of the starvation, ignore it, or seek that which can fulfill it.

The first option will help satisfy for a period of time (long or short) but ultimately, it will leave us unfulfilled and frustrated. Imagine that you found great fulfillment in a TV show, a song, a good book or even book series. You could watch or listen to the media as much as you wanted but will it keep you fulfilled after your time of taking it in? Sure you can keep watching, consuming, and reflecting on your new found passion, but then what after the emotional high from partaking in that passion starts to decline? The more you depend on something to make you happy, the more you will realize that, ultimately, it can't keep you content because it, in itself is finite and temporal.

Ignoring the starvation will lead you to despair since you have such a longing with nothing to fill it. Pretending something doesn't exist only works as long as your will to pretend outweighs the intensity of the starvation and unless your inhumanly stubborn your willpower will lessen over time due to strain. You could use things to distract you so you don't have to think about your willful ignorance, but that would fall back into the first option. Believe me, I've done both of these options in the past and it led me down a bad path emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

The third option is the only one that can lead to true and lasting peace, contentment, and joy. What person isn't happy for a hot meal or a cold drink after a long day's work? When you're thirsty, hydrating yourself is so refreshing and fulfilling that who would choose to stay away from the fountain after being in a desert? If one recognizes an apparently infinite desire in the soul and someone offers him an infinite being who can fulfill that desire, why would he hesitate?

For members of the Catholic or Orthodox faith, there is an even deeper meaning to Hailee's words. As part of the Mass, our Sunday liturgy, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believe that the gifts of bread and wine have their essence or substance changed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. When we receive Holy Communion (a.k.a. the Eucharist) we receive Jesus into ourselves in a very special way. We "taste" Jesus in the Eucharist. Our faith can turn into a longing for God, for union with Jesus as our souls receive God when we "taste" Jesus. We ought to be starving for Jesus, for God's love and mercy and grace each and every moment of each and every day.

I believe Hailee Steinfield has unintentionally called all Christians to really look at themselves and see if we are starving to do God's will and to unite ourselves completely to God. Ultimately this longing and starvation will only be perfectly fulfilled for those at Christ's second coming and we see the Lord face to face.

“We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now, and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8: 22-23

God Bless,

Steven