“When I <insert what you are waiting for here>, my life will be better.” 

Has a sentence like this ever crossed your mind? Have you ever believed that your life will be easier, more comfortable, or less chaotic when you: get married, get out of this marriage, raise the money, feel settled in your community, get through this hard time, reconcile that relationship, find a better work/life balance, get pregnant, or achieve the ministry goals? 

The wanting of these things is not the problem, but rather the tendency to see them as a means to an end, the satisfaction of our soul’s hunger. They weigh us down while we wait and become so big in our minds that we start to believe that once we get them, our hunger will be satisfied. 

Our “When I’s” can so easily become end points instead of mile markers. But, is this what we really want? To end wanting? Can you imagine life without hunger? 

How easy it is to forget God’s promise to bless “those who are hungry now” and to miss that right in the midst of emptiness and rumbling is where God loves to meet us. 

What if we could learn to put our “When I’s” in their place, and see them as the tide of life, instead of one big wave to come in and wash away the rocks on our shore? What if we accepted that even our biggest problems are part of the ebb and flow of our tide, and the rhythm they create is part of the beauty? 

What if we marveled at the ocean instead of focusing on the wave, and hungered for the horizon instead of striving for the shore? 

And, what if, in the hunger, while we are waiting and wanting, we looked for the

redemption 

miracles 

forgiveness 

adventure 

connection

risk 

…instead of the end? 

I have a feeling we are much more likely to find these in the midst of being hungry than in fullness.