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THIRSTING FOR GOD
By: Chuck McAlister
I believe God made man with an intrinsic hunger for Adventure. As John Eldredge says in his book, Wild at Heart:
"Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wildness, is a deeply
spiritual longing written into the soul of man. The masculine heart
needs a place where nothing is prefabricated, modular, nonfat, zip lock, franchised, on-line, microwavable. Where there are no deadlines, cell phones,
or committee meetings. Where there is room for the soul. Where, finally, the geography around us corresponds to the geography of our heart."
That's why I like being in the great outdoors, God's creation. I feel free to be myself, to distill life to its most basic components. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I never want to imply that being in God's creation is an adequate replacement for being in God's church. Worshiping God, as I gather with fellow believers, is not only an important part of my life, done in obedience to God with great joy, but is actually an expression of the private worship times that I've experienced during my time in God's country. During my private worship experiences in the great outdoors, I have learned some valuable lessons about life and those things that really matter.
Recently, while on a deer hunt, I was sitting by a water hole watching deer as they came to drink. While I waited, I began to think about deer and their desire to find water. Finding water becomes an obsession with deer when they are either nursing their young, fleeing danger, or just finishing an exhausting battle with another deer. Their thirst literally becomes their obsession. I began to think how the Bible even talks about this obsession for water in the deer. Psalm 42:1 says,
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God."
As I began to reflect on God's Word while watching the deer, I had to ask myself, What is my obsession? Do I truly hunger for the presence of God? After leaving the water hole that day, that question continued to linger in my mind like one of those familiar melodies that you hear and then hum for the rest of the day.
Several Sundays later, as I sat in church, we began to sing the praise song taken from Psalm 42:1. I felt compelled at that moment to tell God that I really wanted Him to have the priority in my life. The work that God began at the water hole, He completed in church. He seems to do that a great deal in my life -- teaching me to draw closer to Him as I catch glimpses of Him and His love for me in the great outdoors.
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