The Spiritual Value of Longing
A friend told me recently that digestion has multiple stages, and it does not begin after we swallow our food. The whole event begins before we even put the food in our mouths, when allow ourselves to salivate. The process of preparing food and setting the table prepares our bodies to receive. Anticipation and longing are necessary parts of the process of being fed.
During the season of Advent, what are some of the ways that you prepare and set the table in the weeks leading up to Christmas?
What activities or traditions raise up within you that sense of anticipation and longing?
When I have visited major retail stores over the past few months, I’ve been reminded how our culture hops from holiday to holiday. Some stores go from Halloween to Christmas overnight. Taking time for the season of Advent helps us to receive the season of Christmas when we allow ourselves to experience that sense of anticipation and longing. This is just like allowing our mouths to water before receiving a meal.
It is wonderful to anticipate the holiday, to remember Jesus’ birth and to look forward to the nostalgia and joy of Christmas. Beyond the celebrations, are we also longing for who Jesus is and what Jesus brings?
This is something that Jesus talks in his ministry, when he mentions those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, which is a description of longing. Are we longing for the Kingdom of God?
Setting the Table With Everything We Have Left
I’m reminded of the story of Rich Young Ruler found in Matthew and Luke, where a wealthy person was looking for eternal life. His conversation with Jesus reveals that he was not longing to find it in the Kingdom of God, at least not enough to leave his stuff behind. In contrast, the poor Widow in Mark’s Gospel who visits the treasury to put in her last two coins; she was longing for the Kingdom of God. She was setting the table with everything that she had left, because she hungered and thirsted for that which this world cannot give.
She is the kind of person Jesus was referring to when he opened the scroll from Isaiah:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19
Jesus is describing people who are longing for what the world cannot give. They are the ones who would gladly walk away from their situation, or the Kingdom they live in. They would gladly set the table with whatever they have left to be fed, truly fed by Jesus.
In our world today, or even in your own neighborhood, what are people longing for? Who is longing to be fed? Who is longing for what the world cannot give?
Are we longing for change, or have we gotten used to the way things are?
Signs and Symbols and Longing
Just like in Jesus’s life, it’s those of us who consider ourselves to be the most spiritual who need to learn from Jesus the most, and perhaps be changed the most. Perhaps by spending so much time in the church or with holy scripture, we get a little too confident in our ability to feed ourselves. We need to be fed by Jesus just like the poor, the blind, the captives, and the oppressed. We might not be as desperate for change, but our need for change is the same. This is why our reminders need to be that much stronger, because our temptation to resist the coming of the Kingdom of God is that much greater. Regardless of how much food is in our pantry, we need to be fed, truly fed, by Jesus Christ.
This is why it’s so important to take the time to set the table, and allow our souls and our bodies to anticipate, long, and prepare to receive.
During this season of Advent, what is your heart longing for?
Can you remember the signs and symbols that stirred up longing within you as a child?
Advent can be a time for teaching the spiritual value of longing to our children, through the power of signs and symbols. For me, when we began decorating and bringing out decorations in my childhood home, it didn’t just feel like a holiday celebration. It felt bigger than that. It was something mysterious and spiritual, and I could feel it stirring up longing in my heart.
This was something that we talked about when I was in seminary, and we called it semiotics or “the study of signs and symbols”. I think we tend to keep our eyes open a little more during Advent and Christmas for noticing the signs and symbols around us.
During this season of Advent, pay attention to what is stirring up longing in your own heart. And I don’t mean longing for a new set of pots and pans on Christmas morning. How are you longing to be fed? How are you longing for healing or change?
Are we hungering and thirsting for that which the world cannot give, or have we become so accustomed to what the world gives that our arms are simply full?
Making Room for Real Food
I saw a documentary years ago about sea birds, and there was a type of bird that was endangered because the chicks could not eat. The parents would bring home cigarette butts and pieces of plastic, and those things were filling up the bellies of the chicks. They literally had no room for real food.
Sometimes we want instant gratification, and we simply don’t take the time to allow our mouths to water before receiving a meal. Other times, like the Rich Young Ruler or the baby birds, we are filled to the brim with things we don’t need and have no room for real food. Both can be obstacles to the spiritual riches of the Advent season.
Over the next few weeks, what would it look like to put down the things that aren’t feeding you and move with intention toward what does?
The origin of our word Advent is Latin, and in its most basic root form, it means “to come”. While we are watching for the signs of the Kingdom of God, let us come with intention to the table. Let us come with room to be filled by God’s grace. Let us come with longing for what God alone can give, and with mouths watering for who Jesus is and what Jesus brings.
To read about Creating Space for a Contemplative Christmas, click here.
To read more posts, visit my column here. Check out my writing in “Soul Food: Nourishing Essays on Contemplative Living and Leadership”, or listen to me read a portion of my writing for the podcast Read, Pray, Write.
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