Choosing to Let Myself Go Hungry

While in college years ago, I joined several of my classmates in Washington D.C. to lobby U.S congress in support of a bill that was to provide funds for famine-wracked nations in Africa. We had been challenged by a speaker in our college chapel service to do something. It’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that letting people starve is wrong. Food is such a basic thing for human existence, and there’s plenty of it in this world. No one should have to go hungry. And in our youthful zeal, we stormed Capitol Hill.

I still believe this. But, considering the obesity problems in North America, my opinion has become more nuanced. A commitment to eradicate hunger is not the same as concluding that any hunger pang must immediately be satisfied. Food scarcity is real. So is overeating. Studies continue to confirm that fasting can have very positive physical and mental effects when it’s a chosen discipline. And of course there are the spiritual benefits as well.

But the universal truth is, no one likes to feel hungry. Even healthy fasting tends to start with headaches, irritability, difficulty concentrating, persistent hunger pangs, weakness and fatigue. Advertisements for foods I don’t even like can make me salivate. I remember years ago, while on a fast, seeing raw beef liver in a butcher shop and thinking I would gladly have it for lunch. And I hate the taste of liver.

Going hungry is not fun.

Hunger in the Bible

In the scriptures, when the Israelites were preparing to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land, Moses talked to them about hunger. He said it was purposeful.

“And [God] humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV).

According to these words, God sometimes lets people go hungry. That doesn’t seem at all kind. But the verse also says that God gave them food, manna from heaven. It’s just that manna was strange to them, not what they were used to, and definitely not what they wanted.

It Can Make Us Crazy

Hunger does strange things to people. Back in the 1940’s during World War 2, a study was done at the University of Minnesota called the Minnesota Starvation Experiement.* Healthy volunteers were placed on a semi-starvation diet for several months. Researchers found the participants:

• Dreamed regularly about food.
• Collected cookbooks and recipes obsessively.
• Talked about food continuously.
• Took hours to eat meals in order to prolong the experience.
• Licked their plates clean.
• Lost interest in almost everything except eating.

The real-life drastic things people will do when facing extreme hunger can also be observed in historical accounts. There is the Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (1846-1847). There is the Siege of Leningrad, Russia during World War 2. And there is the Uruguayan plane carrying a rugby team in 1972 that crashed in the Andes Mountains. In all these cases, hunger drove some of the people to cannibalism. We can say we would never go to such an extreme, but then we probably have never been about to starve.

It Can Reframe What is Important

All of this provides a backdrop for why hunger is the word used to describe what God wanted to stir up in the people of Israel. He wanted to change their appetites. He wanted them to long for something other than material comfort and physical satisfaction. Heavenly communication from God was what he wanted them to be hungry for. Think of those participants in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. What if God’s people were as spiritually hungry as they were physically hungry? Where spiritual nourishment is all they can think about?

I’m reminded of the words that Jesus spoke to his very first disciples, “What are you seeking” (John 1:38 ESV).

Hunger has a way of clarifying what it is I REALLY want. When all the spiritual “junk food” gets cleared from my system, I can come to a place where only REAL NOURISHMENT will do. Also in Deuteronomy chapter 8, Moses says God lets his people hunger so He can see what is in their hearts. Not having every want and longing immediately satisfied has a way of exposing what resides at the core of my being. I can more clearly see what it is that I’m seeking and whether it has any eternal value.

So, I’m working at convincing myself that I don’t have to fear being hungry. There can be so much to gain by going without. In the end, the same chapter in Deuteronomy tells us that God wants to give us good things and even help us produce wealth. But if our appetites are skewed, and we are really only hungry for the blessings and the wealth, we will be lost in the end. Thus seasons of hunger with longings that are not satisfied can be signs that our Heavenly Father loves us enough to discipline us in preparation to rightly steward the blessings He wants to give. He just wants to clarify what we are truly seeking.

Yes, hunger isn’t fun. But go ahead and try it; let yourself be hungry and see what you learn about yourself and about what God has for you. Maybe there are other things besides food that you need to go without. Let spiritual hunger grow, for Jesus has promised that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).

Because we weren’t designed to live on food alone.

Response:

• When have I been the most hungry? How did it change what I thought was most important?
• What gets in the way of my being hungry for spiritual things? What kind of “junk” do I consume that dampens my spiritual appetite?
• When have I interpreted not getting what I want when I want it as a sign that God doesn’t love me? How might it instead be loving discipline preparing me for something greater?
• How would I answer Jesus’ question, “What are you seeking?”

*To read an article about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, go to https://share.google/okGCrDUZeNBqe2kti