Spiritual Hiccups - Quenching Our Thirst

I haven't made it out shopping yet.  Nothing against shopping.  I'm sure I'll enjoy doing a bit before we get too close to Christmas.  But I'll never be one of the those folks I saw on the news Thursday night; in line, dressed in pajamas, standing in the rain at the local outlet mall, waiting for the official midnight start of Black Friday. (The pajamas made people eligible for some sort of special prizes.)

One of the people interviewed on the news spoke of "living for" such moments.  I don't want to over-read what may be nothing more than hyperbole, but that remark made me wonder about what it is we "live for."  What is it that is truly meaningful, truly sustaining, truly feeds us at the deepest level. Such questions revived when I read from today's psalm.
   O God, you are my God, I seek you,
         my soul thirsts for you;
   my flesh faints for you,
         as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

I saw a Christmas themed Lexus commercial this morning where the narrator said something about how, if we're honest, we must admit we've never hoped for a smaller present.  Meanwhile a Lexus is packaged and wrapped in the driveway.  Again this is probably hyperbole.  Many people are happy with small presents.  But the commercial assumes we will get it, that we will nod our heads in agreement that bigger is better, that more will satisfy us better than less.

What would truly quench the thirst in many of our souls?  What would truly feed the hunger we have that we don't know how to satisfy?  Our culture says the answer is, "More, bigger."  But we never seem to be satisfied.  And our thirst never seems quenched.  Perhaps the culture is wrong.  But it seems so much more sensible than that silliness Jesus is selling.

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