Just Plain Hungry
Through the windows of the upstairs study I sat and watched the cows and horses roam around the pasture in search of a few blades of grass. It is Spring and the grass is growing, but consequently, not fast enough. I had to move the horses in with the cows because of storm damage to the fences in the front of the house. Since both the cows and the horses live to eat, there is hardly enough grass to keep them satisfied, much less fatten them up.
I moved out on the deck with Miss Nita to drink a couple of cups of morning go juice, feel the fresh air and enjoy the company of one another. As we sat there, the horses and the cows were in plain sight. Back and forth they moved, from one side of the pasture to the other, nibbling and chewing. From side to side and sometimes even moving backwards they searched intently for some morsel of food. Now before you feel too sorry for them, please understand that they would do the same thing if they were standing in a knee high field of clover. They understand the need to feed.
As I watched them, I thought about the masses of people in the Body of Christ, who sit and wait on someone to bring them something good to eat. “Hand me a bowl of that book of Phillippians. Yes… that will do. Wait… hold that part about counting myself as nothing. That doesn’t agree with me.” Far too often we’ve been spoon fed for so long, we have a hard time knowing how to feed ourselves. Think about it… an animal is supposed to be inferior to the human race, yet they know that they need to get up, go out and look for something to eat. If we are so superior, why don’t we do that?
The other day I was passing by one of the large windows in the study and I saw a limb shaking vigorously at the fence line near the edge of the adjoining woods. My first thought was that I needed to rush down there and catch a glimpse of that squirrel, because it was undoubtably a whopper. It was just breaking daylight and still difficult to see the ground. As the sun continued it’s ascent, I then made out the image of a large black animal on the ground. Suddenly I realized that it was one of the cows. I thought, “That ole heifer is serious about eating when she starts eating the leaves on the trees.”
I want that kind of hunger, that kind of quest for filling. I want to be willing to eat the scraps, if necessary to satisfy the hunger in my soul. The thing is, with the scraps left over from God, a soul can be nourished beyond the wisdom of mere man, but, God doesn’t want us just feeding on scraps. He gave us a treasure. He gave us a rich field of “Red Top” clover that will feed and nourish us to the point we can understand heavenly things, things that are far from this realm.
The Bible instructs us, “Like newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, not that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”(I Peter 2:2-3). Many of us want to know the good things of God and are often content to blame our lack of knowledge on some teacher or leader, but the truth is, The Book makes it our responsibility to learn.
The next time you pass a herd of cows or horses, stop for a moment and give an eye to what God is teaching you. “They toil not, neither do they sow, but your Heavenly Father feeds them.” Will He not also feed us if we’re hungry enough?