Dressing Rooms, Dieting, and Desperation

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Matthew 5:5-6

In late winter, we took a trip south, for which I visited the local department store to pick up some shorts. I wasn’t sure of what size, so I headed to the dressing room where I was confronted by the dressing room mirrors which have a sinister way of exposing one’s extra weight. It was the reality check I needed to renew my motivation to eat better. For a few days at least, the fresh memory of that mirror kept me on the right path. It didn’t take long though, for my dressing room inspiration to fade, and soon, I was back to my old ways.

This is a life problem for me. When my need for change is painfully revealed, I commit to transformation. As time passes, and as the discomfort fades, the impetus to change fades, and I gradually return to the behavior that led to my misery in the first place.

I’ve had a few life struggles that have been horrible enough that I’ve remained desperately willing to do what it takes to radically and permanently alter my behavior. Addiction of course, was the most obvious. In the misery of consequences, I finally became willing to daily do whatever it takes to abandon my drug use to follow God. As the dressing room revealed though, I still have other struggles.

Jesus, in today’s passage, taught this truth. Those who see their poverty before God, those who are humble, and those who remain desperate for him, are the blessed who find him. We were made to live in a profoundly intimate relationship with God, in total and continual dependence on him. It is our fallen nature however, to embrace the lie of self-sufficiency. It is often only through painful circumstances then, that we catch glimpses of our true need for him.

So, how do we apply today’s passage? Daily, we must insist on humility, recognizing that we need God and that we cannot do life on our own. We must daily pray for spiritual hunger, that we may recognize our need for God, and we must daily point our lives at him instead of self. Those who find God, faith, transformation, and recovery, are those who remain desperate and hungry.