Longing For Love

Longing For Love

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.”

John 6:35

“DADDEEEE, I’M HUNGEEEE.”

Silence.

“Daddeeee, I’m hungeeee.”

My then three-year-old son was entirely cute and a little annoying.^a About twenty times a day he would call out from wherever he was in the house.

“Daddeeee, I’m hungeeeee.”

“Dawson, you’re fine,” I would respond. “You ate just a little bit ago. We’ll be eating soon. You’re fine.”

Silence.

“No, Daddeeee. I’m weally hungeeee. I’m starving, Daddeeee.”

My son was a bit melodramatic. But, on the other hand, maybe he was on to something.

In fact, what I think he was on to is the human condition. We’re hungry. We’re all hungry. And I believe what we’re hungry for is love. Perfect love.

Ted

Ted sat at the production meeting before our service. Before we talk through the elements of our service, we always recognize and cheer for any new volunteer. That day, Ted was doing a “first serve” running the sound board. He was an ex-hippie from San Francisco who used to run sound for the Grateful Dead.

We cheered for Ted. (Normal.)

He blushed. (Normal.)

He gave a little speech. (Not normal.)

“Thank you,” he said. “I started coming a few weeks ago because my sister in Texas insisted I try this church. I’m not a church person, and didn’t think I’d like it at all, but I did. I just want to be up front with you guys. I don’t believe any of the stuff you believe. But I’m hoping maybe your faith rubs off on me.”

I asked him why, if he didn’t believe, he kept coming back.

“Well, I . . .” Ted paused. “I’ve never felt as loved as I do here.”

Wookin’ Pa Nub

Back in the eighties, Eddie Murphy used to do an impression of Buckwheat from the Little Rascals. If you remember the Little Rascals, you know Buckwheat never mastered the ability to pronounce certain words. One Eddie Murphy skit was a commercial for a fake “Buckwheat Sings” album featuring the hit “Wookin’ pa nub in all da wong paces. Wookin’ pa nub.”

That’s exactly the problem. People are looking for love, but in all the wrong places.

We long for love. A deeper love than we receive from other people. We long for a love that is truly unconditional and utterly dependable. A love that draws us in and drives out our fear. A love that is pure enough to fit well in our hearts and big enough to fill the gaping hole we find in them. We yearn for perfect love.

And so we look. As children we look to our parents, later we look for our love need to be met in romantic relationships, and still later in our kids. Some of us try to substitute success or food or money or drugs or fame for love, but no matter how much we get, we still find ourselves longing.

The love we’re looking for is too perfect for anything in this world to be able to satisfy us.

It’s a love that only God can give us.

And he wants to. The Bible says God wants to lavish it on us^b and pour it into our hearts.^c And God’s love is big enough to meet our love need. In fact, it’s bigger than we can even understand.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.^d

I Finally Found What I’ve Been Looking For

Two weekends ago I preached a sermon challenging people to bet their lives on Jesus. (I’m in Vegas; people here understand gambling metaphors.) “We all bet our lives on something,” I said. “We seek our identity and meaning from something. We pour our lives into something. We’re trusting something with our lives and for our eternity. Make Jesus your something. Bet your life on Jesus.”

I led people who wanted to make Jesus their Savior and Lord in a prayer, then told them to sign up for the baptisms that would be happening the following week.

After the service Ted walked up and said, “Where do I sign up? I’m all in.”

It had been about four months since his first visit. Since then he had been reading the Bible every day. He dove into serving. He made some friends. One of our pastors shared the gospel with him over coffee. But mostly, he had felt loved, and he had learned about and experienced the love of God. And that’s what he had been wookin’ pa his entire life.

Last weekend Ted stood in front of a room full of people and shared his story. (He took fourteen minutes!) Ted said his whole life he’d had no interest in God because he had assumed God had no interest in him. But he had always longed for something he could never find. At our church he had found it. He said, “I just can’t believe God loves me. I can’t believe God wants a guy like me. I have something to wake up for every day now. I wake up with a smile. I can’t wait to read my Bible. The reading plan will say to read like James 1. But it’s so good I’ll just keep reading, like all the way to James 12. Well, I don’t know if there really is a James 12.” (There is no James 12. Ted will figure that out soon.)

He said, again, and again, and again, “I just can’t believe God loves me. I can’t believe God would want a guy like me. I finally found what I’ve been looking for.”

Call to Him

We’re hungeeee. And God is what we’re hungry for.

When my son would call, “Daddeeee, I’m hungeeee,” and I knew he really was hungry, you know what I would do? I would get him something to eat. Of course I would. How can you say no when your kid calls out to you like that?

You are God’s kid.

When you look up to him with big eyes and say, “Daddy, I’m hungry,” his heart melts.

And he will always respond to that cry.

Now What?

• Read Jeremiah 29:12-13.
• What would it look like for you to seek God with all your heart?
• Prayer is talking to God. Some people make it more complicated, and it intimidates them into not praying at all. But prayer is just talking to God. God invites us to talk to him from our hearts, to talk to him about anything and everything, and to feel free to speak casually to him. Prayer is a big part of how we grow in our relationship with him. Each day you’ll be given something to pray about. Hopefully, it will lead you each day into spending more time talking to God about other things, and over the forty days, into the habit of praying every day. Today, ask God to help you to be consistent doing all forty days of this book and for it to establish lifelong habits that will keep you connected to him.