Heart Healthy

Matthew 5:6

A hungry heart will search high and low to be fed. A hungry heart knows hunger deeply and profoundly. A hungry heart meets the world ravenous and ready. 

The sad thing is, though, that a hungry heart will not be as discerning as it needs to be. A hungry heart will often accept far less than what it needs, accepting fullness from any source instead of that which truly nourishes it and sustains it. A hungry heart will settle for less than it deserves just to end the emptiness that drains it. 

To use a parable to explain this dynamic, look no further than the nearest McDonalds. These restaurants thrive because a whole lot of us are willing to settle for being full instead of being fed. As any cardiologist will tell you, that gets us into all sorts of trouble. We will trade convenience, saltiness (it tastes good), and abundant calories for carefully strolling the local market for the greens, roots, and fruit our bodies actually need because to do that takes way too much time and often money. 

So it goes in human relationships—better to simply not be alone than really work on making deep, lasting, and fulfilling connections. 

Hearts atrophy. 

Without exercise, proper feeding, and development, hearts can close, closing minds with them. The cholesterol of the soul—fear, anxiety, alienation, isolation, boredom—increase, clogging up our ability to be the people God made us to be. As this happens to more and more of us, disconnection, discord, and discontent increase, leading into more and more profound experiences of what is wrong with the world. We find that even things that used to be meaningful, full of purpose, and enriching no longer seem to be. We find that a deeper, but meaningless, silence falls between ourselves and people we would claim as the most important people in our lives. 

You see this when you go out to dinner—the couple obviously together for a long, long time, sit in total silence as they wait their order. It is not the comfortable silence of two hearts richly twined together who no longer need a lot of words to enjoy one another, but rather the heavy, foreboding silence of two people who have run out of things to say to each other. You feel the chasm between them, yawning like a great abyss that they no longer can bridge, nor even feel much compulsion to do so. Why bother? Too much work…

But Christ enters with this beatitude—“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be fed until fully full.” 

Physicists will tell you that the created order hates a vacuum. I believe the cosmos reflects her Creator in this attribute. Emptiness draws God. God draws closest to us when that emptiness threatens to engulf us. I believe that when we feel farthest removed from God is ironically when God is actually closest to us. When our souls cry out in need, in emptiness—in hunger—God immediately descends to fill the hole within us. 

The Psalmist sings of this presence again and again. Look at how psalms follow the pattern, “I am empty/needy/lost/alone/broken, where are you, O Lord?,” followed shortly by a hymn of such astounding assurance that we might well wonder if the same person is praying.

Note also Christ’s walk within the world. Story follows story of a person suddenly finding healing and redemption from him—sometimes with just a word, other times with a “laying on of hands,” and even miraculously simply with an acknowledgment of suffering by Christ. Hungry people meet Christ and are fed. The Living Bread that Jesus named himself in John’s Gospel suddenly manifests itself in a wanting human heart. 

And there is the key—the added phrase to the blessing—“…for righteousness…”

Christ’s grace is there always for anyone anywhere, but it requires a trip more intentional than stopping at McDonalds because it is on the way home. I mean, the produce section of the grocery store isn’t going anywhere. My particular supermarket is right across the parking lot from McDonalds and Taco Bell. All it takes to get nourishing food is parking and walking into the grocery instead of queuing up in the drive-thru line. Christ’s grace is the same—it is there all the time, but you have to see it and accept it for it to be efficacious. 

See? You knew there was catch…

No—it is not Christ who remains aloof from us, but rather we who stubbornly choose to ignore his presence. I do not mean to sound harsh or unfeeling as I say this, rather I say it to awaken us. Look again at Christ’s walk within the world. Everyone on the road, in the towns, or around the Temple saw him and heard him, but those who hungered for the gifts he offered actually got fed. A great many simply ignored him, or rejected him because they did not like his menu, or dismissed him as yet another nutritional whacko. Sadly, it was the most churched within the crowd who had the hardest time accepting him for what he was. Don’t repeat their error. Don’t assume you already know what God provides. Rather, allow yourself to be surprised by grace. Allow yourself to see Christ’s presence for what it is. See your need for what he offers. See the hunger within yourself—hunger for meaning, purpose, and intent for daily life. Allow Christ to feed all of it. 

There is so much hunger all around us and within us. So many are empty. But it need not be so. God is good and grace abounds. God provides. 

Don’t go around hungry, nor let anyone else stay hungry.

Come into the soul-nourishing presence of Christ.