Grace Notes

Everybody's hungry Nancy Kennedy

One day last week I was at the market buying bananas, broccoli slaw and Vidalia onions when the kid bagging my groceries asked, “How are you today?”

I told him, “I’m so hungry I could eat my arm.”

We both laughed and then when I got to my car I gobbled a banana in about three bites because, frankly, my arm was looking pretty tasty.

As I sighed that universal sound all humans make when they’ve once again quieted a hunger pang, I thought about how everyone, every human being, is hungry — and everybody loves to eat: Ribs and rack of lamb, fried fish and hush puppies, Vietnamese pho, Italian gelato and German chocolate cake.

The desire for food and to be fed is amazingly powerful.

Everybody’s hungry. Everybody wants to be fed.

Sunday night dinners at Grandma’s, nachos and beer while watching football with the neighbors, coworkers gathered together in the breakroom eating cake to celebrate someone’s birthday or retirement.

We’re born hungry, crying for our mother’s milk.

And there are a billion ways we humans try to feed our hunger — not just hunger for food, but for the deeper things like approval and acceptance. For success. For love.

Years ago, my friend Charlie Wade and I used to sit outside his bike shop and talk.

One of our favorite topics was food. As a Southern boy, he loved barbecue.

One day he told me he used to be a fat kid.

So was I.

We had that in common.

We were always-hungry kids.

We used food as comfort until it wasn’t comforting anymore.

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

That’s always been an “uh oh” verse, because I thought it meant I should drum up a more righteous hunger, that my hunger was somehow bad.

But Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are those who work up a hunger and strive to be thirsty for righteousness by doing a bunch of religious stuff.”

He knows we’re all hungry.

His desire is for us to be filled.

Maybe our cravings are trying to tell us something.

We hunger for God’s smile, His approval, being right with Him.

Instead we eat cupcakes. We go out and buy shoes.

Jesus hands us bread and wine and says, “This is My body and My blood. Eat, drink.”

Maybe we’re mistaking craving for nourishment.

Before he died, my friend Charlie went through a time when he could only eat through a feeding tube into his stomach because he couldn’t swallow.

No fried chicken, no meatloaf and mashed potatoes, no country ham, no pie.

Charlie didn’t know if he’d ever eat real food again — and he missed it.

After his doctor began dilating his esophagus, he could finally eat.

Eggs and grits never tasted so good, Charlie said.

He cried because it tasted so good.

Sometimes I think I want prime rib and lobster when what satisfies is something much simpler and more basic — not just eggs and grits.

But grace.

To me, grace feeds everything. All our desires find satisfaction.

Hunger is ultimately satiated. Thirst is quenched.

We’re welcomed — and accepted.

We can finally push our chairs back from the table wanting no more.

Contact Nancy Kennedy at 352-564-2927 (leave a message) or email at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.

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