Starvation Dieting
When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Deuteronomy 8:10 NASB
Satisfied – What do you do when you’re hungry? You eat, and the hunger goes away. Hunger is the natural physical symptom accompanying the bodily need for nourishment. Hunger is designed to remind you that you need to feed yourself. It is a survival signal. Satisfying hunger is a good thing but it takes effort. Of course, today most of the real effort it takes is hidden from sight, converted into a medium of exchange called money. You and I simply purchase the effort it took to actually provide what we need. Our action is more or less instantaneous. We buy food. But in order for that to happen, someone else had to actually produce the food and if we had to satisfy our hunger ourselves we would soon discover that it takes a lot of effort to diminish this normal symptom.
What do you do when your nephesh is hungry? What do you do when your whole person cries out to be nourished? Unfortunately, most of us employ the same speed-relief technique we use when it comes to purchasing something to eat. We search for a solution that does not require a great deal of our effort. We attempt to satisfy the signal that we need whole-soul nourishment with substitutes for the actual work necessary. We take a spiritual diet pill.
A diet pill doesn’t actually nourish anything. It merely blocks the signal. It artificially convinces the organism that it doesn’t feel the need. Of course, the need is still there, but the pill prevents us from experiencing the need so we don’t take the action that is really required. Spiritual diet pills come in all kinds of shapes and colors. When the nephesh cries out for nourishment, we can choose a wide variety of “comfort” drugs instead of spiritual food. Sex, alcohol, eating, artificial mood-altering substances are the most recognizable, but there are many, many others. Even church services, noble causes, charity and Bible study can become spiritual starvation diet pills. The nephesh is not crying out for more religion, no matter what form religion takes. It is crying out for God and the only real way to satisfy that longing is to come into His presence with deeper intensity. That takes work. Just as eating bread would take a long time in preparation if you had to plant your own crop, harvest, winnow, make the dough and bake before you could eat, so coming into the presence of the Father takes seriously long dedication and effort. Without this dedication, virtually all speed-relief actions are merely forms of diet pills and in the long run the equivalent of spiritual starvation.
The problem is that most of us don’t know we’re starving because we have so successfully adopted a regimen of spiritual diet pills. We have so successfully blocked the emergence of that feeling of spiritual lack that we don’t think anything is wrong. Until, of course, something happens to break through the haze created by so many pills. By the way, God is particularly adept at breaking through that haze; more adept than we are of simply finding a stronger pill.
What would happen if you and I stopped medicating our needs? Probably the same thing that happens when you and I stop blocking the feeling of being physically hungry. The gentle reminder that we need nourishment would become a craving. This is best exemplified in the psychosis of long-term concentration camp inmates. Starvation led to dreams about food, a constant consciousness about food and behaviors to obtain food at any cost. What would happen if we stopped medicating the soul? How soon would we realize that everything about us craves spiritual contact with God? If we couldn’t resort to any of the “pills,” would we then be driven to find Him, just to relieve the pain? What if you put down your Bible, ceased using your emotional blockers, stopped your religious activity substitutes and let yourself feel the intensity of your longing for the Father? What would you be willing to do then?
Topical Index: satisfy, sabea, diet, religion, Deuteronomy 8:10
So, does this idea of “feeling the intensity of your longing for the Father” have any part of Psalm 34:8 (vs 9 in Tanakh) as you are explaining it?
“Contemplate and see the YHVH is good; praiseworthy is the man who takes refuge in Him”
“Taste and see how good YHVH is; happy the man who takes refuge in Him!”
“O taste and see that YHVH is good; happy is the man who trusts in him.”
I have no idea how to feel any intensity of longing except through contemplation of who YHVH is and who I think I am by what YHVH says of me. It is a non-starter for me as I am probably locked in to the addiction of thinking my way through things, as I believe you explained.
It makes sense but I have to think through even how to feel any longing. The closest I might have come to understanding this is when I’ve been walking and deliberately focus as much of myself on the moment as I can, in the now as opposed to thinking of the coming days or weeks events thus planned. Forcing or relaxing, (which is it?) my self to see the trees, the leaves, the dirt, the sky and contemplate, taste the reality of it all being what it is, from YHVH.
Not trying to get mystical but that is how it comes across to me initially. The only take away I get from the 8:10 verse in this regard is the ‘eating’ must involve some level of focused contemplation, examination, inspection, observation and scrutiny that must go beyond just intellectual acknowledgement of facts to a realization that results in action somehow of ‘yada’ more of who I am and who YHVH is. That is, stepping in to a closer, deeper, more personal understanding of how we, YHVH and me, relate. What ever level that accomplishes is some level of satisfaction, fattening that results in blessing YHVH from my nephesh.
Somehow I only sense a two dimensional understanding or less. Flat land. My feeler is broken or completely non-functional. Woe is me.
Michael…I’ve sometimes said those exact words…”my feeler is broken or non functional.”
It’s kind of surprising, because my husband was so gifted at feeling. He helped so many people with his amazing gift. Perhaps I came to rely on him to do all the work and now I’m having to learn for myself.
I think that owning the problem is half the battle. Lately, I’ve been asking God more frequently to please fix my “feeler” for His benefit as well as mine. I want to use my emotions for His glory, but I think I’ve been in “task mode” for so long, I need some help.
Praying that both our “feelers” get fixed by the Great Fixer.
Yep, definitely concur with the task mode idea, Judi. I think mine has been indelibly imprinted on me from my early Campus Crusade for Christ days during my university stint. From their Four Spiritual Laws foundational teachings I was trained to NOT to put much value in relying on emotions but rather the facts of the words in the Scriptures. Don’t feel it. I really think I’ve missed some things as a result.
Hey Michael, i also have ( long) moments of two dimensional “non-feeling” , BUT, I must say, that I will never forget and I really “felt you” when you read for us the daily Psalm on the bus in Israel and also when you gave me advice on my father’s death and burial. Not too much “flat-land” or broken feelers I experienced – and thanks for that!!!
Thanks, Luzette. I certainly miss you, and your infectious energy! You regularly helped me ‘feel’ I could carry on with our daily strenuous tours. You are certainly full of life. Hope to get to Africa and visit some day. 🙂
If we are hardwired for love, which more than a few scientific researchers from more than a few disciplines are now starting to tell us, then all of our motivations, choices and actions are going to have to be explained as movements toward what we THINK is love. Its not, “well, yesterday I wanted love, but today I don’t”, it’s more like “I believe love looks like this in this place, so this is what I am going to do about it”. We have to have the stuff all the time, or at least THINK we have it, some kind of way, for the abyss without it is totally, completely intolerable. To feel completely without love is to die. As in heart attack or drowning dying. Its no wonder we go to the lengths we do to avoid this place! (Um, that’s part of the hardwiring, too. Just sayin’.)
I have found that letting myself even go check to see whether or not I am feeling what I am feeling (for what I am really feeling (assessing) about love in any given place may reveal to me the truth about how FAR I am from love) is so scary that I cannot make a move toward there, unless I am feeling safe. Here, where the rubber meets the road, is where “mercy and truth… righteousness and peace” are going to have to meet and reconcile, for me to feel safe. If I am not believing that this is true, IN REAL LIFE AND TIME, I am not going to be able to even go and check, and yes, this is the verse I finally found to stand on for this particular exercise.
Do beliefs matter? Yes, they do. It does matter what I really believe, for what I believe (about love, of course) drives every thought and every action I take. If I cannot go and freely check the love barometer (my ego and emotional response status) WITHOUT FEAR (which is where that medication or those avoidance mechanisms kick in) then, at some level, I am not walking in faith that what the Word says about love is true, and so I am going to have to repent for that lack of faith before I try again. This one was so, so tough for me. I could mentally, theoretically claim that I knew the Bible was true, but if it was not playing out in my life in real time, I was lying. This has been a terrifying place for me! There was nothing I was more afraid of than a: my emotions, and b: not believing the Word. The fact that those two had such an intimate connection with each other was like my nightmare had become reality during the day. It could not have been any worse.
I realized that the extent I was afraid of myself was an indicator of my true belief status. I was floored! I finally realized that I was gong to have to be more afraid of NOT believing the Word than I was of myself, to even try. So I went and found Isaiah 8:3 and decided to stand on that and to “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread”. I cured one fear with another! Humans are sure funny things, but pain does make us move.
Maybe we should consider the spiritual discipline of both weekly and extended fashioning our nephesh with fresh wine skins to receive new wine by fasting from food to mourn for Messiah’s absence and to hunger for His presence through the Ruach HaKodesh and Messiah’s return, as well as meditating on His word through prayer, as something we must do to improve the condition of our ruach and nephesh. Apart from fasting, we may be leaving our nephesh in an “old wineskin” condition whereby we lose the new wine (His Ruach and His word) being poured out and even worsen our spiritual condition. Fasting has been called “voluntary weakness”. It is the necessary weakening of our flesh to renew and strengthen our ruach and nephesh.
Consider Messiah’s words:
Mat 9:14 Then John’s disciples came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
Mat 9:15 And Yeshua said to them, “The guests of the bridegroom cannot mourn while the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Mat 9:16 “And no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment and a worse tear happens.
Mat 9:17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, and the wine spills out and the skins are ruined. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
I believe I seek the presence of God in my spiritual life. I think I seek it every day. But most days, if I honestly reflect, I don’t really feel that presence. Sometimes I think I do: most of the time I know I don’t. And what should that feel like anyway? I know the church service I attend each Sunday is superficial, skimming easy to take passages, avoiding really difficult ones, spoon feeding scripture to me like baby food: not too much, not too difficult, not too controversial. Nothing to make you question a teaching or doctrine. Most leave satisfied that they have “been fed” spiritually, now on to lunch and the week ahead. But I leave empty and hungry and feel “short changed”. The presence of God is missing and without that, there is nothing. Thankfully, I have my home studies and the works of Heschel, Dunn, Wright, Moen, Polkinghorne, Willard, Bell and many more to aid my quest. I thirst. I need that presence. And so I dig and I dig for God’s truths and how I fit in the tapestry. It’s hard work and I am aware of the comedic saying about the facts of life: “Everybody likes Italian food and everyone is basically lazy.” I am not afraid of opening another door or asking a question that raises an eyebrow. I don’t care. I am seeking his presence. Nothing is more important and no theological pill will satisfy that. I thirst.
Good post, David. Thanks. I relate to much of what you said. Except the church attendance part as I’ve moved on from that exercise a while back. I am tempted some times until I converse with a former church member and they start inviting me back with the common one liners. Nothing about where I am in life, nothing about whats on my mind, etc. Nothing of real substance, just come back to church. Sigh.
I yearn for someone with enough fortitude, gumption and raw interest to engage in a good argument in search for truth. I want to eat steak, not suck Gerber carrots from a jar through a straw. :-/
By the way, can you elucidate which Polkinghorne and Bell authors you mentioned. Always interested in good reads.
Michael: John Polkinghorne, James Dunn, N.T. Wright, Rob Bell, Skip Moen, Abraham Heschel, C.S. Lewis, E.P. Sanders just to name a few.
Yes David, could you give first names Of authors. Would be greatly appreciated
Skip, thanks for all you do through your beautiful words both here and in yoir books I also enjoy your audio files.
Tara: See post above to Michael. Also, I forgot Dallas Willard
Thanks, David. Interesting you have read and admit you read Rob Bell. I have and do as well. He has become a controversial figure in some circles, but I think he says some very interesting things and appreciate some insight he has shared.
What do you do when your nephesh is hungry? What do you do when your whole person cries out to be nourished?
Let’s me think of what Yeshau said “Blessed are they that hunger…”
I always hunger for more knowledge of why God created the earth – He has everything… He controls and changes things at a blink of an eye… Yet I do not yet understand why He created this universe…
When this hunger gets too much I am always reminded by small deeds of kindness, a urge to assist, a word of encouragement or gratitude and such human contacting interaction that this creation is a result of a growing love and not a necessity.
May our hunger for love be so great that it also results in the creation of a heavenly kingdom for God on earth…
Now read The Lucky Life to see what Yeshua was really talking about.
The Lucky Life I will get to read it and respond accordingly.
Till then a Life as a Son/Daughter of God… This is how I understand the intent or outcome of progressing through the spiritual enlightenment (Beatitudes) by being empowered through rebirth in the 7 Gifts of Christ to do one of the 5 talents or senses of the body of Christ to edify the body or gathering of seeking souls.
An interesting book I read in my earlier research was THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT by Emmet Fox 1938.
Wow. This is helping me understand why i crave certain “pills”. Or at least why i try to drown myself in certain activities. I feel convicted about my choices and yet enlightened at the same time. Over all this was very encouraging.
I have to say, this one left me scratching my head. So what is the real food? I agree it is not in forms of church service, though the fellowship can certainly on occasion scratch an itch, fill a need. On occasion a lesson learned (such an experience when listening to Rabbi Kahn about the Hebrew alphabet. ..DNA or something like that. ..put me in tears ). I love learning about YHVH and then learning how to apply that in life (thank you Skip, as your teachings have had a lot of impact on that direction ). I do know I am often hungry, but most of what we often think of as food, you said is a pill. What is the food? (I have to say, after watching the Super Bowl, and other things recently, people are Starving…Fruit Loops is their main diet. SAD.)
Jesus told His disciples that He has food that they do not know of His food is to do the will of His Father. My question is if this food is upholding the old covenants or grasping onto the new – Love each other as Jesus loved His disciples…
Or is this food that specific set of tasks we are called to do: When I was hungry you fed, When I was naked you clothed, When I was in prison you visited – and what would these activities actually mean or imply??
Those listed activities are what the Torah looks like in practice.
I have seen the terms “Old” and “New” Covenants twisted to mean whatever today’s theology wants them to mean, but they were about something much different than what most of us have been taught. I think we pretty much have to start over when it comes to the subject of covenants.
The will of the Father? That has always been a given, ‘Old’ Covenant or ‘New’.
Amen