This past year, we felt dangerously out of control. Not like roller coaster feelings of exhilaration: Tightly gripping the seat for a sense of control. The rush of air hitting your face, breath sucked out of your lungs, vision blurred. Gasping between laughs, your heart still in the sky.
Twenty-twenty was a roller coaster, but there was nothing exciting about these out-of-control feelings. The chaos of an unknown virus, uncertainty of safety, and instability of work. The losses of loved ones to injustice, either from a cruel pandemic or biased system. The year wore us down, draining us to depletion.
The beatitudes show how God meets us in our spaces of emptiness. Jesus said those who have needs are blessed. Why? Because they are aware of how much they need him.
Blessed are the poor, for they know their need for God and receive from him alone.
Blessed are those mourning, for they will experience God as comforter.
Blessed are the hungry and thirsty, for God satisfies deepest longings.
I have never been more aware of my neediness, my longings, my emptiness, my dependency than I have this past year. I have never felt more aware of my hunger for more. But I have never felt more aware of God’s presence. Jesus said the hungry are blessed, for hunger makes us seek his presence all the more eagerly. We recognize he is the bread of life, the source of abundance (John 6:32-35).
Someone once told me the power of prayer is in coming to God with our desires and petitions so that when God works on our behalf, we will be aware of his provision. We will be looking for his fingerprints, and we will see the generous, tangible love he lavishes on us in daily grace (Lam. 3:23).
In the aftermath of a year that has left many feeling out of control, drained, depleted: May we find the courage to meet God. Let us ask him to fill us with gratitude for these hunger pains that remind us to partake of his goodness.
When we feel the pangs of hunger and become aware of the emptiness inside, we can taste the goodness of God and be strengthened, sustained, and satisfied. He longs for us to seek him (Matt. 7:7-10). He wants nothing but to fill us.
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Thank you, Ela! This is my prayer for you, too! Love you, friend!
This is beautiful, Alyssa. There is nothing that God loves more than for us to realize and embrace our neediness. May he increase your hunger for the bread of life in 2021!! Love you!