Hunger On, Son!

As most of you know I have a son who has made choices in his life that haven’t been so productive. At each fork in the road he kept choosing the wrong path and finally his path has led him to serve time in prison. Of course I have been devastated, humbled but most importantly God has been able to show me just how BIG He is and just how itty bitty I am.  So yes it’s been tearful but oh so joyful. Throughout it all I have, if you can imagine, I have spiritually clasped my arms around His ankles and have refused to let go. I want to share a story with you that helped me hang on tighter and with a smile.

What is so incredible is when God speaks to your heart and then confirms it. I would call this one of those hit me with a brick God moments.

Wikipedia defines hunger as the physical sensation of desiring food. Now that is a definition that I can relate to, but have you ever really been hungry, hungry to the point that all you could think about was food and even though you were eating food you couldn’t get full? In the evenings, usually around 8:00 my phone would ring and the familiar voice recorded man would always greet me to let me know that I had a call from and inmate, my sweet son. I looked forward to those 15 minute phone calls daily mostly because I wanted to know that he was safe and well. But every phone call always ended the same way, “Mom, I am so hungry.” That’s all he could talk about. This child of mine who was once so full of life and energy had by his own choices reduced himself to an orange jumpsuit, with locked doors and an empty belly. For those of you reading this that has children you can only imagine how hard this was to listen to. So one Saturday evening lying awake in bed I begin to talk to God, I was just expressing my heart to Him about how hurtful it was for my son to be hungry. The next morning I found myself in the shower having the same conversation with God.

(Explanation: I, once I realized that I could not fix or help my son, spiritually carried him to the alter and said God he is yours, vowing not to pick him up again.)

So back to the shower. I was trying to think of a creative way that I could pose to God my request and here is what I came  up with . “God, would it be possible for you to allow the food that my son is given to nourish and fulfill his body so that he is not hungry?” and here is what He said to me. (No he didn’t speaking audibly to me, he spoke to my heart although he spoke so loudly that it might as well have been out loud.) “What if HUNGER is party of My plan for him.” Wow, God if that is your plan then I accept it, but I accept it painfully.

I finished getting ready for church wondering just how hunger could possibly fit in to His perfect plan for my son. Well when in doubt sometimes God sends reinforcements to give you a clearer vision of what He is trying to say.  That morning in church my pastor instructed us to turn to Luke 15: 11-32  the parable of the Prodigal Son. Please if you haven’t read it lately take time to do so. Here are the key verses and what my pastor said about them that spoke so beautifully to my heart.

(NIV Translation”)

¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father

WOW… it was hunger that made this son realize exactly where he was at, where he had been and where he needed to be. So guess what I did. I went home from church, got a pen and paper and began to write my son a letter sharing the parable of the Prodigal Son with him and how that I had prayed for God to quench his hunger and what God had revealed to me. So my words to my son were, Hunger On!  After he got my letter he called me and said, “Mom, its true when I am the hungriest is when I remember where I came from, how I was raised and who I used to be.” So we agreed from that moment on, hunger wasn’t a punishment it was an opportunity for him to remember.

This story could be for you too. Are you starving for something and you can’t seem to get satisfied. Well, have you met my God? He can feel every spiritual pang that overtakes your tired, stressed, mess of a life body. Maybe you already know Him but you’ve been distant, maybe you have been dining with the hogs. If so pick yourself up take a hot shower ladies and put on your dining clothes, cause my heavenly Father the King has a place set for you at His table. If you are reading this and you are hungry I say to you boldly, Hunger On, hunger long enough to remember who you are and who you belong to and where you need to get back to.