Craving The Good Stuff

linking with Five Minute Friday– write for five minutes on a given prompt
today the prompt is “crave”

I didn’t think it was possible to crave vegetables.  Chocolate cravings I was familiar with.  Vegetables.. well, I always liked them but I would never say I craved them… until an experience a few years ago.

I went to help at a youth training camp and the food was unbelievable: it mainly consisted of stodgy shop-bought pies and sausage rolls, tinned spaghetti hoops and chips (that’s fries to my US friends!)  One day as I was clearing up the kitchen I discovered that anything that was actually being cooked was being fried in lard, and for a whole week there was not a bit of fruit or veg to be seen!  At breakfast one morning I saw what looked like orange juice so I drank it eagerly only to find it was some kind of “orange flavoured drink” that had probably never been near a real orange!

By the end of that week I felt like I had put on about ten pounds and my insides had turned to lard!  I was desperate for something natural, something fresh.  My first move on returning home was a trip to the supermarket where I bought ten different kinds of fruit and vegetables, and I ate very little else for the next few days.

What it showed me is that my body is smart enough to know what’s good for it, and that when it has been constantly filled with rubbish, it does crave the good stuff.

I see the same spiritually.  If I have been filling my mind and heart with too much rubbish and not feasting on the good stuff- God’s Word- I do begin to crave it, and I’m glad because I need it.

We all have cravings: we crave love and acceptance, we want to feel we have a purpose, we need something to fill the emptiness inside and give us hope.  But when we look elsewhere to satisfy those cravings it is the spiritual equivalent of lard and pies.  We get momentary satisfaction, relief from hunger, but long-term, it’s not a good plan.  We need something more- to fill our souls with what they’re really craving.

Let’s turn to God today and feast on the good stuff!

“Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?  Why pay for food that does you no good?  Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.  You will enjoy the finest food.”  Isaiah 55:2 (NLT)