Humility

Have you ever experienced that thing where you have felt hungry for so long that you somehow don’t feel hungry anymore? It’s as if your brain tries to console your stomach’s unfulfilled longing by signaling a removal of the hunger cues. Like that makes it better. As if that meets the need.

But if you’ve ever gone past the point of feeling your hunger, then you know what’s next.

You lose your appetite.

The reality of an empty stomach hasn’t changed, but your body adjusts to what it's given. In a way, it recalibrates what it feels it will receive. Your actual needs haven’t changed. Just your ability to sense what you need.

I wonder if the proverbial wilderness brings on a similar experience to our spiritual lives.

We can only endure the wilderness for so long.

At some point the isolation, the emptiness, the confusion, the abandonment – it takes a toll.

And I wonder if our brain’s instinctive (and protective) response is to diminish the sensed need.

We numb. We forget. We lose sight. We harden.

But none of that changes the reality of what our souls need.

We need love, acceptance, belonging. We need security, purpose, delight. We need God.

But extended time in the wilderness can make us forget.

The only way to regain hunger cues is to eat. And the only way to reawaken our need for God is to behold Him. Or maybe rather, to behold our belovedness in Him.

If you find yourself having forgotten your need for love – that is, God – then receive this as an invitation to consider your belovedness. You are fully known, fully loved, and fully accepted just as you are. There is fullness to be found in connecting with the truth and love that is God within you. You can find revival for your soul even here, even now, even in the wilderness.