Created to Crave: Part 16

A Glorious Day!

We live in a noisy and busy world which makes it very difficult for us to pause and truly examine our lives.  When we do what we discover is that our hearts crave.  While our physical bodies crave things like food, air, water, and sleep, our spirits crave things like intimacy, significance, and truth.  We get glimpses of satisfaction in this life, but our souls are never really satisfied.

C. S. Lewis wrote; "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world" (Mere Christianity, p. 121).  The logical explanation for the cravings of our souls is that we were made for another world, a world where God reigns, a place where intimacy thrives, significance is discovered, and meaning is supplied.  Once sin entered this world it was robbed of its potential to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.

When we encounter Jesus our hearts get a taste of satisfaction they so desperately crave.  This taste gives us hope that one day we will experience the complete satisfaction we have been longing to have.  The hope of Christianity is that when Jesus returns and sets this world right then we will experience life the way it is meant to be lived, and the desires of our hearts will be met.  What a glorious day that will be!

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Created to Crave: Part 15

Jesus is the Light

The presence of evil in the world makes all of us pause and consider the purpose of life.  If there is no bigger purpose and if there is no reason for our creation then the evil around us the pain of life renders life meaningless.  That is why our souls cry out: "What is the purpose of life?"

One day Jesus and his disciples ran into a man who was born blind and this encounter prompted the disciples to ask Jesus a question: "Who sinned, this man or his parents?" Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ question helps us make sense of this world.  How does his answer help us?

Created to Crave: Part 14

Who Sinned?

Just as our bodies crave things like food, water, and air; our souls crave things like intimacy, significance and meaning.  We have a hunger to understand the purpose of our lives and to make sense of the circumstances of our lives.  This is especially true when it comes to evil and suffering.

Today we meet a third anonymous person from the Gospels.  This encounter with Jesus is a little bit different from the previous two we have looked at, the woman at the well and the rich young ruler.  The man we read about today wasn't the one who came to Jesus to discover the purpose of suffering, rather  it was Jesus’ disciples who asked the question.  It was in the encounter with this man who was born blind that provided the disciples with the context to ask their question about the meaning of life.

Created to Crave: Part 13

We Crave Meaning

I don’t have to tell you that we live in a broken world.  Every day as I read the news I come across at least one story that starts me praying as I wonder how something so awful could happen.  How could a parent kill his/her children?  Why does a young college student have to die?  Why does rape and sexual abuse occur?  Why are there so many people suffering from starvation or from terminal illnesses?

I would bet if I asked, you would be able to give me personal account of suffering.  None of us can go through life unaffected by the problem of evil.

Our difficulty is trying to reconcile suffering and a loving God.  We want to believe, but all the bad which happens around us seems to make believing impossible.  We crave to find some meaning to life and the bad things that happen to us.

Here is the question I would like you to consider today: How do you make sense of the world?

Created to Crave: Part 12

We Want to Matter

You and I have this craving in our heart that compels us to have some sort of significance in our lives.  We want our lives to matter!  In the movie Gladiator Maximus inspires the men following him: "What we do in life echoes in eternity."  That is the sentiment echoes in our hearts as well.

In the Gospels we meet a man who had been blessed by God, who was a leader in his community, and who had dedicated himself to moral living;  yet deep in his heart he craved for something more.  The young man came to Jesus with the question: "What must I do for eternal life."  He wanted his life to matter.

Created to Crave: Part 11

Trashed Significance 

Our souls crave.  We crave things like intimacy, truth, and significance.  In the Gospels we read about a man in search of significance.  Even though none of the three Gospels which record this encounter with Jesus give the man this title we have come to know him as the rich young ruler.  He came to Jesus with a question: "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"

Jesus had finished teaching His followers about faith.  He told them that these children, who love and trust their parents, are the type of people who will inherit God’s Kingdom.  God’s Kingdom doesn’t belong to the rich and powerful or the moral and the religious, but those who live by love and trust in their heavenly Father.

Created to Crave: Part 10

Seeking Significance

Do you remember that anti-drug campaign from several years ago where the announcer said: No one says, “When I grow up I want to be a junkie.”


I would think that is true. Everyone wants their lives to count for something.  We desire to have meaning and purpose woven into our lives. I remember in 4th grade telling my teacher that when I grew up I was  going to rid the world of crime. It was an ambitious dream, but one that would give my life significance. 


This desire for significance looks different for different people.  It could look like raising a family or being good at our jobs or becoming famous.  We all want our lives to matter.

This is that question I want you to consider today: What gives your life value?

Created to Crave: Part 9

The Life Giving Well of Intimacy

Very few people like to be alone.  Humans were designed to be connected with other people.  We find the greatest satisfaction when those connection are face to face, but even online connections can provide some of the relief that we seek.

The main problem we run into as we seek satisfaction for our craving for intimacy is sin.  Sin is destroys intimacy.  It rips apart the bridges of trust that have been built and sets fire to houses of love that were established.  I am guessing that all of us have experienced the pain of broken relationships caused by sin.

Created to Crave: Part 8

A Common Experience

You and I long to be known.  It is a real and constant craving of our hearts.  We have had moments of contentment when we have been able to enjoy the companionship of great friends and the wonderful presence of family.  Yet these moments are sooner or later marred by the reality of sin in the world.  True intimate relationships are hard to maintain when sin rears its ugly head.

We see this reality in one of the most talked about people in the Bible. Even though she is often talked about we do not know her name.  We know her as the woman at the well. As we go through the text try and imagine, based on your life experience, what life was like for this woman before she met Jesus.

Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn't baptize them—his disciples did). So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 

He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink." He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food (John 4:1-8; NLT).

Here we notice that the woman was an outsider.  She came to the well to draw water when she hoped no one else would be there.  This poor woman had had her fill of disapproving looks, the constant whispers, and being disrespected.  In short she was tired of being the outsider.  She decided that it was easier to avoid people than to deal with all the drama, and so she came to the well when her chance of running into other people was greatly reduced.

Created to Crave: Part 7

Expecting Intimacy

On June 25, 2011 after years of waiting I married my dream girl.  I came into our marriage with many different expectations.  There were expectations ranging from what household responsibilities each or us would take on to how we would spend our vacation time.  It is a reality of the life that we enter into experiences with expectations.  These expectations are both spoken and unspoken.

One of the expectations we put on marriage is that of intimacy.  We want to be known, loved, and accepted unconditionally.  Marriage seems to be the accepted place for this expectation for intimacy to be met.  While marriage is perfectly designed to help meet this desire for intimacy we have to remember that each person, both husband and wife, come into marriage with this same expectations.  The problem being how they expect this craving for intimacy to be met will look different for each of them.  So it is essential for both people to make the time and to be intentional about speaking one another's love language.  That will enable both husband and wife to have their craving of intimacy at least partially met.

It will only be partially met because our craving for intimacy extend beyond marriage.  We want our friends and collegues to accept and value us as well.  This is why peer pressure doesn't disappear when you graduate from high school or move beyond college.  We will do crazy things in order to be accepted by the group of people we are with.  Let me ask you this question: What have you done in order to be known?

We have all been created with cravings.  These cravings come from our innermost being: soul cravings.

No matter how much we try to indulge these cravings or no matter how we try reign them in through self-control these cravings never seem to be fully satisfied. The leads us to conclude what C. S. Lewis said, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (Mere Christianity, p. 121). The deepest desires of our hearts point us to the reality that we were created for a different world.  We were created to be part of God's eternal Kingdom and only there will we find the satisfaction to our hearts' deepest desires.

From the very beginning of the Bible we see that we were created with the desire for intimacy. Genesis 2:18 says; Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him" (NLT).   Our Creator declares that it is not good for people to live a life alone.  We need intimate fellowship in our lives. The best possible life that we can live is a life lived in relationship with God which flows out into relationship with other people.  It is not good for us to be alone!

Why do we have such a hard time with satisfying this desire?  The reason is because of sin.  Since sin is rebellion against God, His purposes, and His ways then sin destroys our relationship with God.  A broken relationship with God leads us to have broken and selfish relationship with other people.  Sin makes it impossible for us to satisfy this craving here one earth.

Created to Crave: Part 6

Made for a Different World


The Christian writer and thinker C. S. Lewis wrote: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (Mere Christianity, p. 121).  That is what this blog series is about.  I want us to look at the desires we have in our lives and begin to develop a new longing: God's New Creation. The deepest longings of our souls and the cravings of our hearts point to the reality that we were designed for something more.  We weren’t met for this world, so we shouldn't expect for our desires to be satisfied here.

The follower of Jesus Christ discovers that satisfaction can only be realized in Christ Jesus.  Jesus said:

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father." (John 15:5-8; NLT)

One of the truths we get from this is that source of our lives is Jesus.  We cannot hope to have life and to be satisfied apart from him.  We must intentionally stay connected to Jesus through prayer, study, and obedience, and as we do we will grow more content and discover the satisfaction we long to have in life.  This will be only a foretaste of what life will be when the old earth passes away and we find ourselves living in the New Creation God has promised.

Instead of endlessly trying to find satisfaction here on earth we begin to hope for heaven.  As we begin to hope for heaven we begin to enjoy the things of this life a little better because we no longer expect them to satisfy our souls, we don’t expect them to do something they weren’t designed to do.

Here is what I want you to remember: We find ultimate satisfaction in Jesus.  Following Jesus will make our lives better, but we will also realize that He is leading us into a brand new world.  It is in that place our desires will finally be met.

Created to Crave: Part 5

Hoping for Satisfaction

When it comes to our cravings we can seek satisfaction through indulgence.  It seems to make sense that if we give into our cravings that those cravings will be satisfied.  The problem is that the response of indulgence often leads to increased cravings.  Rather than decreasing our cravings we actually discover that we are craving more and more.  Satisfaction is not found in indulgence.

Since we cannot find satisfaction in indulgence we will turn to a life of self-control.  Self-control isn't designed to bring satisfaction, rather it is designed to reign in our cravings so they don't dominate our lives.  So once again we are left unsatisfied.

A third response to our soul cravings is faith.  Faith allows us to live our lives believing that one day all our deepest desires will be met.  A life of faith enables us to live with the hope that we will have satisfaction. 

Jesus had just finished feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a few fish.  It was a miraculous meal.  The people wanted to make Him King, after all a man that can heal the sick and feed the hungry, could lead an unbeatable army.  Israel could be free from Roman control! Listen to what happened:

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"  

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.  

They replied, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?"  

Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."  

They answered, "Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, 'Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"  

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, Moses didn't give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  

"Sir," they said, "give us that bread every day."  

Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven't believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day." (John 6:22-40; NLT)

Jesus said don’t worry about the things of this world, but think about things that can’t perish.  He claims that  in Him our longings, our hunger and thirst, will be satisfied.  Get this, our longings cannot be truly satisfied as long as we live here in this world.  We will find temporary satisfaction, but the longings will continue to come back.

What Jesus told the crowd, what he wants us to know, is that only when God's Kingdom arrives in power will we experience the lasting satisfaction that we want to have. We will be known like we want to be known.  We will have value, not because of what we have done, but because God has declared us valuable.  We will understand truth and the meaning of life and realize that what we need is found in God alone.  I believe that following Jesus will give us the best life we can live right now, but the best part of following Jesus is that it gives us hope that one day all the cravings of our souls will be satisfied.

Created to Crave: Part 4

More than Self-Control

We have noticed that every person has cravings.  Some of these desires are purely physical in nature and some of these craving come from deep inside of us.  These are the desires of our hearts.  As we seek to satisfy these desires we will choose one of three responses.  The first response is that we will indulge the craving.  Our hope is that as we give in to the craving that eventually we will be filled up and the craving will disappear.  The problem is that it usually doesn't happen.  What usually happens is that the more we give in the more control the desire has on us.

That leads to the second response which is self-control.  I think most people fall some where within this stage.  They have realized that total indulgence doesn't work and they hope if they could somehow manage to monitor their cravings then those craving won't grow out of control and they will have some satisfaction to them. 

Jesus exhibited self-control when He was tempted by Satan.  Remember after his baptism Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. There he fasted for 40 days as he was tempted and harassed by Satan. At the end of those 40 days Satan came with three temptations to get Jesus to ignore God’s provision for His life.  The first temptation was to turn stones into bread: something a hungry man would be tempted to do. 

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.
For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. 

During that time the devil came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread." 

But Jesus told him, "No! The Scriptures say, 

'People do not live by bread alone,  but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:1-4; NLT)

Once people realize that indulging their every craving is futile they will begin to try to reign in those cravings through some form of self-control.  In order to do this they will turn to rules and regulations that will provide guides and limits to their lives.

This is certainly a step in the right direction. After all self-control is on of the qualities God desires people to have. For that reason it is not surprising to discover that people who seek to live by self-control will construct rules and guidelines that are rooted in Scripture, even if they do not realize it. We discover the results of self-control when we see wealthy people who begin to care for others, donate money, and set up charities to make this world a better place.  A mother who sets aside her desires to serve her children and family is another example of living with self-control.  They may not be intentionally following God’s law, but they are.  And what they discover is that some of these longings, these soul cravings, that they have will begin to diminish.  The more intentionally we give our lives away to living out God’s law the more enjoyment we begin to have in this life.

There is a problem though.  Yes, this is a step in the right direction, but it falls short.  Listen to what the apostle Paul writes:

 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, "Don't handle! Don't taste! Don't touch!"? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. (Colossians 2:20-23; NLT)

It isn't that self-control is evil or of no use, it never was to intended to bring satisfaction to our hearts.  Self-control can manage evil desires, but it cannot destroy our evil desires.  Self-control can reign in the cravings of our hearts, but it cannot bring lasting satisfaction to our lives. 

If we are going to experience lasting satisfaction for the desires of our hearts then we need more than just self-control.  Yes, we need self-control, but we need something more.  We need Christ.

Created to Crave: Part 3

Indulging the Craving

You and I have cravings.  We crave small things and big things.  We crave things that are necessary for life and things that are detrimental to life.  The bottom line is that we cannot escape from our cravings.


As we seek to satisfy these cravings our cravings we have at least three different responses.

The first response to the cravings of our hearts many of us try is indulgence.  We hope by giving into our cravings and living a life of indulgence will bring the satisfaction to our lives that we need.  The problem is that while this response seems to work for a while there comes a time when indulging the craving no longer brings us the pleasure it once did.  We are brought face to face with the reality that we cannot get the lasting satisfaction that we long to have.

The poster child of this life is King Solomon.  Solomon was the third king in history of Israel.  His father was the great King David.  Solomon was great in his own right.  At the beginning of his reign he asked God for wisdom so he could correctly govern God’s people and God granted Solomon’s request. Since Solomon's request was so wise God also granted him great riches and a long life.  Solomon’s wisdom was known world wide and Israel prospered under his rule.  The problem is that Solomon, at least for a time, abandoned God and began to worship the foreign idols of his foreign wives.  At this point Solomon started to indulge his heart's desire.  Listen to what Solomon had to say about indulgence:

I said to myself, "Come on, let's try pleasure. Let's look for the 'good things' in life." But I found that this, too, was meaningless. So I said, "Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?" After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world. 

I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire! 

So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; NLT).

According to Solomon the life of indulgence is a life of meaningless.  It doesn’t get us anywhere and the cravings of our souls are left unsatisfied.  I think we have all been there.  As children and teenagers we think that we have to have what we desire right way. We try our best to indulge our cravings, yet as newness wears of the toys, as relationships are broken, and our lives begin to become consumed by selfishness many of begin to ask: Isn't there are better way to live? While a life of indulgence seems to be the best way to live, it doesn't take long to understand that it doesn't bring the last satisfaction that our hearts are longing to have.        

Created to Crave: Part 2

Everyone Craves


One of the most obvious soul cravings our society experiences is the craving of intimacy.  We want to be known.  This is why social networks on the Internet are so popular.  Even behind the mask of anonymity we want to be known.  So often we feel hampered about being our true selves in the real world because we fear we might be judged, so we hide parts of our lives.  We do our best to fit into the mold society, whether it is a social or a religious mold.  While we may be hiding but our hearts are crying out: Know me!

Erwin McManus in his book Soul Cravings wrote about Kurt Cobain:

“In the opening page of Kurt Cobain’s journal, he writes, ‘Don’t read my diary when I’m gone. OK, I’m going to work now, when you wake up this morning, please read my diary.  Look through my things and figure me out.’ 

“Kurt’s life tragically ended at the age of twenty-seven.  Ironically, the name of his band was Nirvana, the Hindu name for paradise.  The same artist who penned the song “Come as You Are” in the end never found what he was looking for, never found the help to figure himself out. 

“I think we’re all more like Cobain than we would care to admit.  We’re struggling to figure ourselves out.  We’re all afraid to expose our souls to those who might judge us, and at the same times, we desperately need help to guide us on the journey.” (Cravings)

We long to be known and to be loved.  In fact I have witnessed people do very destructive things in order to satisfy this craving and in the end they just ended up with more pain and more rejection.

Another craving that has become so very evident the last few years is the craving for significance.  We want our lives to count for something and to have a purpose for our lives.  When each day is a struggle to survive this craving is kept at bay, but when a person lives in an affluent culture like we do we begin to think about why we are here: What is the purpose of my life?

One piece of evidence for this craving was the success Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life.  The year that The Purpose Driven Life came out it was the second best selling book of the year, behind Harry Potter.  That is phenomenal success for a non-fiction book! Non-fiction just don't sell at the same rate as fiction. People are hungry to discover purpose and to add meaning to their lives.

Another piece of evidence for this craving is how this younger generation’s primary goal in life is to become famous.  They have bought into the lie that in order to do something significant they have to have their face on TV screens and magazine covers.  We are driven to make our lives matter.

A third soul craving that we have is the craving for meaning.  Perhaps this craving can be best summed up in the question: Isn’t there more to life? Not only do we want to find our place in the world but we also want to figure out the world in which we live.  You can achieve great success and still wonder: Is this all there is?

Every belief system out there, from atheism to Christianity, seeks to make sense of our world.  We want to know the truth about things.  We are troubled by the reality of evil in this world as well as about the randomness of life. Our hearts break when we hear about another person with cancer, another natural disaster that kills hundreds, or another madman with a gun who slaughters people he never met.  What is the meaning and purpose behind all of that?  Is God really sovereign? Isn’t there more to life than eating, drinking, sleeping, and work? Is it really true that all we can be certain in this life are taxes and death?  What is the purpose of all of this?  Our hearts are crying out for answers.  We crave to know the truth.

Created to Crave: Part 1

Craving is Natural

We all crave things.  Some of our cravings can drive us to become better people or to sacrifice for the benefit of another person. We have other cravings which put the focus squarely on us and we hope that no one will try to prevent us from satisfying our longing.

We crave small things and we crave large things.  From coffee to cars to careers we find desires inside of us that compel us to live in a certain way and to do certain things.  Some cravings we are not very aware of and other cravings become the driving force of our lives.  I have grown to understand: to live is to crave.

Pause for a moment and ponder this question: What are the desires that drive your life?

The most noticeable cravings that we have are physical cravings.  We have them everyday, and sometimes we don’t even recognize that we desire these things until we go without them, and then our bodies make clear what it desires.

Our need for food is possibly the most obvious craving we have.  Several times a day our body will remind us that it is time for food.  For many of us our bodies don’t just crave food, but they crave certain foods.  We will crave chocolate, fried chicken, apple pie, pizza, or ice cream.  Sometimes we will even crave weird things.

I remember a couple of years ago I had been sick for nearly a week and had hardly felt like eating. I knew I was starting to feel better when I developed this huge craving for Macaroni and Cheese.  Because I am a little weird, or a lot weird depending on who you talk to, I like to eat Macaroni and Cheese with peas mixed in.  So I went and bought a couple of boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and frozen peas and gave into my craving.  Some cravings just have to be met. 

Another physical craving that we have, and one I doubt that we think much about is air.  If you are ever in a room and you see someone not breathing make sure you call 911 because our bodies crave air. We don’t know how much our bodies crave oxygen until we go without for a while.  

One of the things I enjoy when I go swimming is to see how long I can stay underwater.  I have never been able to last very long.  I don’t think I have managed much more than 10 seconds.  Yet at the end of those ten seconds my lungs are on fire, crying out for the oxygen that I need to survive.  Some craving are essential to survival.

A third physical craving I have experienced is sleep.  Because of electricity many of us get less sleep than we should.  We stay up late into the night watching TV, surfing the World Wide Web, or even reading.  Because of alarm clocks we can make sure we can get up early so we can go to work, to school, or get to Walmart.  We are a sleep deprived nation and rather than giving into the craving to sleep we try to medicate ourselves with caffeine: soda, coffee, and the increasingly popular energy drinks.

I don’t know about you but I have had my share of nights where I stayed up all night.  Several years ago I got a new game for my Playstation 2: Star Wars Battlefront 2.  I quickly became addicted to the game I had playing it for hours and before I knew it it was 5:00AM. I faced a dilemma: do I go to bed for a couple of hours or just stay up and try to manage the day without sleep.  I decided that going to bed wasn’t worth it and continued to stay up.  I went through the next day and with each passing hour my body seemed to cry out for sleep.  It was so good to fall into bed the next evening and give into what my body was desperately craving.  It feels good to succumb to cravings.

Our bodies were created to crave.  Cravings don’t have to be about indulgences like chocolate or coffee, but can be about the basic necessities of life.  I think when it comes to our soul cravings, the deepest longings of our hearts, they are often about the abundant life Jesus offers.  We may try to meet these cravings through indulgences like sex, money, or partying.  What we discover is that a life of indulgence does not satisfies our cravings, they only numb us to the presence of those cravings.  

If we are going to live the full life that God has created us to live then we need to know the soul cravings of our lives. Take moment and  examine your life.  Ask yourself this question: What is your heart crying out for?