25 March 2006

never enough to be satisfied...

I was busy working on an assignment just now when an image came to my mind; I don't know how or why it came to me, it just did. We've all seen it so you'll know what I am talking about. It's either your own or you've gone to someone else's house for dinner. Your about to put a forkful of tender steak in your mouth and then it happens. You feel something on your leg and you look down and there's a furry paw resting there. You follow the paw and find it's attached to a chin with big brown eyes above it saying, "Feed me. If I don't have that piece of meat, I will die. I have been so starved and neglected." His eyes are burning a hole through the slice of filet on your fork, he's staring so intently. The pool of drool is rapidly spreading and your pants are wet now. Wet and foamy. All his energy and thoughts are focused on that one thing. He's hungry for it. He would do anything for it. He's desperate for it, really believing he might die. You slip him a morsel under the table and he about takes your finger off because he's so over-zealous. And you're amazed how he works his act all around the table and how it always pays off. And no matter how much he eats, he always has room for more. He's never satisfied.

And it hits me, what if we prayed like that? What if we sought hard after God the way a dog wants that piece of meat on your fork? What would happen? God already does some pretty amazing things, both in us and through us. Just imagine how exponentially that might increase if we were that absolutely desperate for him. If all of our energies and thoughts were completely focused on knowing him more and never being satisfied with the knowledge and insight he has given us. To be always seeking more, always growing. Even making the proclamation that we might die if we don't get it. Meditating on it, both day and night, waking and sleeping. Seriously, think about it. What could happen? At the absolute minimum, God would "slip us a morsel" and we would be so eager for it that we would almost take his hand off. Okay, not really, but you get the picture, yes? And I mean no disrespect at all. I am not, in any way, saying that God is up there dangling things in our face to tease us or see how much we salivate and jump around and whine, or to see how "pretty" we can sit. That's not at all what I am mean to do. I am just conjecturing on this a little bit, thinking about all the incredible, limitless possibilities there would be if we were just that over-zealous. At the absolute minimum, we would surely learn something deeply meaningful about God and his desire for us to fervently seek after him and his perfectly profound love for us. It would be just enough to make us want more. And more. And more. It would always pay off and we would never be satisfied.

1 comment:

Mark D said...

Fantastic analogy...and one of your very best posts! It was a great reminder that we should always be pursuing more in God.