Daily Jewel

by Pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK
July 27, 2012

You Hungry?”
“Hunger is no excuse for a thief to steal…” – Proverbs 6:30 (MSG)

The temptation was there before him. It was dangling before him like the proverbial carrot before the horse. The shop owner was turned and talking to one of the customers. All he had to do was grab it and run. And who could blame him? He was hungry! Really hungry! Neither he, his mother or his three brothers and sisters have had a full meal for at least two weeks, only a scrap here and there when they could find something. The depression had taken his father’s job and now his father was gone looking for employment elsewhere, leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves the best they could. He was as hungry as could be—and that piece of meat would feed him and his family very well!
Yes, young Bobby would have any and every excuse possible to take what was not his. Hunger has a way of doing that to a person. It will make even the least palatable foods (to our particular tastes) become our favorite foods for the moment! I remember going on a three-day fast some years ago. It was self-imposed as I was going through a Spiritual Journey and felt I needed God’s strength more than my own. While I was on this fast I did not isolate myself from society or my family. When my family sat down for meals I was there with them…drinking my water…and unfortunately taking in the aroma of the foods around me. While I was on the fast my wife decided to make foods that were not necessarily my favorite which she believed would decrease the temptation to “sneak something in.” It did not work! I found myself craving even the foods that I normally had no interest in. That is what hunger will do! And Satan knows that! He knows what we “crave” in terms of our entire being! He knows the “hungers” we face—whether it is a real physical hunger or hungers of the will. Power—sex—fame—inclusion—recognition—attention…and the list goes on. The human spirit has been endowed with such cravings as the means to give our lives meaning and purpose. If there were no desires in us to be better—to grow as a person then what meaning would there be to our existence?
It is what we do with those cravings—hungers—that concerns God. We can use our “hunger pains” as the means to seek God’s understanding and wisdom (the whole purpose of the Proverbs) to better our lives or we can go the opposite route and misuse our cravings for selfish purposes. “Stealing” as it were to make things easier on us—at least that is what we think.
Bobby had a choice. His hunger told him he wanted that meat—His conscience told him that it was wrong. He knew it was wrong because his father had taught him that it was wrong. He could hear his mother’s voice—reading the Bible which would also tell him it was wrong! He thought just long enough for the store owner to turn and ask the young boy what he was doing. Instead of taking the piece of meat and running, Bobby asked the store owner if he could do some work for him—a chance to earn his food for his family. Something he would do for next three months until his father made his way home with enough money to sustain them for the next couple of months—when he would finally find a new job. Young Bobby thankfully did not give into the temptation. Thanks to his father’s new job he met some individuals that nurtured in him a passion that would define his life for years to come. Major League Baseball and New York Giants fans (now the San Francisco Giants) remember him, and in what has become known as, “The Shot ‘Heard Round the World,’” Bobby Thompson’s life was one purpose and strength. He was on three all-star teams in the late 1940’s early 50’s.
There is no excuse to do wrong! Even when appears the signals are a go—beware! God has a better way.