It has been 15 months since my last posted blog. I never stopped writing. I just didn’t feel like I had anything to say to anyone but myself or God. The past few months I have felt the nudge to offer some thoughts again, but with a new focus: stories of redemption and transformation. Some time in the new year, I’ll have a new website too. Until then … here are my musings on Advent.
ADVENT
I’m trying to give up gum and cut back on warm drinks. It has come to my attention that I have a constant appetite to experience pleasure on my tongue. I barely finished my coffee and I start looking forward to my cup of lemon ginger tea. I have to force myself to drink plain water through lunch. Then I can have green tea in the afternoon, though what I usually want is a second cup of coffee. Lately, I’ve been having that second cup. In between my yummy drinks are usually one or two pieces of gum.
There is a lovely comfort in a warm drink but I have realized that this constant craving to have this comfort, this happiness inside my mouth, keeps me from being attuned to the spirit (mine and His) and what He might want to bless me with or lead me into. It makes me wonder how disconnected my flesh and it’s cravings are from my spirit and it’s deep needs. When I am deeply satisfied in my spirit, it lasts and spills over. Happiness inside my mouth is here and gone as soon as the cup is empty and most of the time it doesn’t even live up to the anticipation.
So, to prepare my heart for the coming of Christmas, I’m drinking more water. Plain ol’ water. So that, I might hear where the Spirit is drawing me and be truly filled. What does your flesh crave? And is it drowning out the cry of your spirit’s true hunger?