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Chapter 1: The Universal Hunger

“I sense that my deepest need is to make myself available to God so that He can speak to me. I really want to experience God in a full measure—not in some extraordinary way, but just to be able to feel His presence and guidance.”

“Theology may give you information that is important, but it cannot fill the deepest longings of the broken soul.”

“There is no journey to God—only a journey with God.”

— FELLOW SPIRITUAL PILGRIMS

An Urgent Hunger

Human hunger for God is intense and universal. Even if suppressed or denied, it cries out silently from the depths. Such hunger is not a wish to know about God, but rather a quest to encounter Him. People want to touch, experience, and feel the divine—not just discover facts about God. While the hunger affects all people, it is especially evident in the Western world, especially those places in which secularism and traditional Christianity have become most prevalent.

I understand the hunger because it has also gripped me. In 1984 I had recently finished doctoral studies in religion and was teaching at a Christian college. Earlier I had suffered a spiritual crisis while serving as a missionary in Thailand. Though raised as a Christian and knowing my beliefs intellectually, I had never come to an experience that told my heart that God had truly accepted me. Serving in another culture upset my equilibrium and brought me to a crisis. In the end, after an intense search and struggle, I found an assurance of forgiveness and acceptance by a gracious God. I had, in common parlance, been “born again.” It led, however, to challenging questions. How could one so socially and educationally steeped in Christianity and who had even been “born again” still feel so spiritually hungry and thirsty? I knew that God loved me, but why did I feel distant from Him? What was going on?

I began a search—a not-so-secret quest to find God. The Lord started me down the road by beginning to teach me about worship. He used the simple testimony of one who had seen renewal come to his church through heartfelt worship to awaken me to the wonderful sense of presence that comes as Jesus is adored. God used Quaker Thomas Kelly’s story in A Testament of Devotion1 to warm my heart and instruct me. Henri Nouwen intensified the craving.2 Through them and many other sources I slowly began to recover a sense of God’s presence and to transform a devotional life that had once been dry and almost nonexistent, even though I had served as a missionary and pastor.

As I began, at first hesitantly, to speak of what I thought was my solitary search, I quickly learned that I was not alone. Teacher colleagues of mine in other disciplines as well as my own began to talk about their own spiritual hunger. In fear and trembling a colleague and I taught an experimental class on the spiritual life. We took students on a retreat during which in small groups they talked about their spiritual journeys. To our surprise, students flocked to the class. Students of all types in large numbers took the class for general elective credit, something virtually unheard of. Clearly faculty and students alike shared the same hunger that I had experienced. I clearly remember the response of one student when I asked, “Why are you taking this class?” With clear conviction he said, “All the beliefs we’ve heard before, but this is what we need for our life.”

In the years following I have learned that this hunger is universal in my church. When they receive clear teaching on actually experiencing God, people respond, because it is food for their hungry souls.

The explosion of interest in spirituality in Christianity indicates that my hunger is a universal one in the Christian church. Books on prayer, meditation, Bible study, worship, and other topics of devotional theology have proliferated. Courses in Bible schools and Christian colleges as well as seminars for the general public have rapidly spread. The demand continues to grow.

It is easy to see the same trend in the West even outside the Christian stream. One can easily document the growing popularity of Eastern religions. New Age gurus find an eager hearing, and books and magazines on spiritual topics are popular. The issue today is deciding which spirituality to follow. Television, movies, and other popular media are full of angels, demons, spells, and every imaginable kind of supernatural occurrence. Even if people are not so interested in following traditional religions, at least they’d like to touch divine or supernatural power. The basic hunger is the same.

Reasons for the Hunger

The natural question that one asks at this juncture is “Why is such hunger so acute at this time in the Western world? What drives this insatiable craving?”

Part of the answer is our recent history and culture. As physical hunger results from the absence of food, hunger for God arises out of the absence of the divine. The “enlightenment” period of the past 150 years has intellectually squeezed God out of life. Even where a theoretical belief in God’s existence has lingered, He usually has little direct contact with daily life. Science can explain just about everything, even for many Christians. A subsequent chapter (12) will explore this in more detail.

Four main factors especially trigger this hunger among Christians and those in societies heavily influenced by the Christian faith. The first results from the way we have defined religion as accepting certain ideas with the mind. We traditionally use statements of belief to explain our brand of religion. Many churches employ such documents as the Apostles’ Creed. Denominations in the reformed tradition have “confessions,” such as the Westminster Confession. As theology students soon learn, these confessions are not acknowledgments of sin, but statements of doctrinal orthodoxy. Christians use such statements to show their orthodoxy and make clear their differences with other groups. All of these attempts, though, reflect an implied definition of religion that is primarily cognitive and intellectual.

The contrast of this definition of religion with those employed by non-Christians hit me with force one day as I was teaching world religions. Muslims define themselves by five pillars. The first pillar confesses that God is one and that Muhammad is His prophet. Outside of this first pillar, the other four pillars all deal with the spiritual life and not doctrine. They urge prayer five times a day, almsgiving to the poor, Ramadan as the yearly fast, and pilgrimage to Mecca. For a Muslim, then, religion includes some doctrine, but has more to do with the spiritual life than intellectual belief.

Many Hindus and Buddhists describe the particular sect or brand of their faith by the meditation type they follow. All these non-Christian religions, by their very practice, view religion much more as a devotional or spiritual experience than as a philosophy or idea.

Thus it is not strange that many Christians feel a hunger for God because their very definition (often only subconscious) of what religion is cuts them off from the source of spiritual life—communion with God.

The problem becomes even clearer as we look at the second reason for the hunger. The very definition of theology accepted by Christians militates against taking the devotional life seriously. Traditionally many in the church spoke in the plural about theology. There was not a theology but three major branches of theology. First, dogmatic or doctrinal theology dealt with doctrines and philosophy and taught people what to believe. Second, moral theology, concerned ethics and instructed people how to behave toward one another and in society. The third, mystical or devotional theology, focused on the spiritual life and guided people in their religious experience. For most Christians the threefold concept has vanished. Theology has become singular and refers only to the first category. Thus theology in the popular mind has become doctrinal theology almost exclusively. Is it any wonder that for many “theology” seems boring and irrelevant? It should be no surprise, then, that those who delve deeply into the discipline often feel the greatest hunger for God.

The third reason for the spiritual hunger follows naturally. Because of the preceding deeply ingrained understandings of religion and theology, those responsible for teaching Christianity at the highest levels have often neglected to present the spiritual life. Based on a survey in 1994 by the Murdoch Trust of more than 800 people, the importance placed on spirituality and the spiritual life in the life of a pastor varies greatly between laypeople, pastors, and seminary professors.3 Laypeople list spirituality as the number one priority in a perfect pastor. Pastors rate it number four. Seminary professors do not even rate spirituality as in the top five priorities for pastoral training. Their most important item is theological knowledge. What the average layperson craves does not figure as crucial in the minds of those teaching Christianity at the highest level.

I am a product of this system. From first grade I went to church school and studied required religion and Bible classes. For 16 years I remained in this system until I finished college. Then I began theological studies and attended two different conservative Christian seminaries, finally graduating with a Ph.D. I do not regret that education. It shaped me in many good ways and preserved me from the drug culture and other dangers in society. Also it led me to love the Bible and enjoy theological teaching and discussion. On the other hand, this system was based on the same unbalanced definition of religion I have shared above. During those 20-plus years of Christian education, I studied numerous Bible and religion classes and learned the doctrines and the history of Christianity. In the seminary I studied the biblical languages. In all that time, I never had one class devoted specifically to instruction and training in the spiritual life. People assumed that I should pray, but they never required me to read a book on prayer or meditation. My teachers were good people, and I believe they thought that I would “catch” the devotional life on my own. While this is now changing, we must admit that several generations were raised in that way, and that legacy unfortunately continues.

Unbalanced Following

The fourth and final reason for the hunger relates to the selective way we have understood and followed our important religious founders. Charismatically gifted founders of religious reforms or movements typically are wholistic in their approach. Martin Luther is a good example of this in his role as initiator of the German Protestant Reformation. He performed many functions, serving as preacher, teacher, writer, and even having a hand in the music created by the new movement. Certainly he wrote and taught theology, and his theology brought renewal. But Luther was much more than a theologian. He was a great promoter of a renewed religious life. As a former monk, he was diligent in prayer and wrote a book on the subject. Regularly spending two or three hours a day in prayer, he had a motto that said, “He that has prayed well has studied well.”4

With the passing of Luther, this balanced approach that combined a renewed doctrinal understanding with an experiential heart communion with God, gradually vanished. Lutheranism developed two main branches. The first, confessional or scholastic Lutheranism, preserved the theological heritage of Luther and developed it with even greater detail.5 The second branch, Pietism, emphasized the cruciality of a living heart experience of the resurrected Christ. Pietists were fervent in devotion and zealous in evangelism. While Pietism had an influence, confessionalism ultimately triumphed and became the mainstream Lutheranism. The original wholistic view of religion faded away.

A similar experience emerged in the experience of John Wesley and Methodism. John Wesley was the complete Reformer. Theologically he subscribed to Reformation theology and the evangelical experience. Clearly teaching the importance of both personal and social holiness, he founded a movement with all the things needed to nurture the spiritual life. His small class meeting system (a maximum of 12 members) and band organization provided a powerful model for personal discipleship and devotion in small groups that required accountability of its members. Wesley’s devotion to Jesus led him to spend two hours a day in prayer that usually began at 4:00 a.m.6

The death of Wesley brought changes to Methodism. By the late nineteenth century it had abandoned the “class meeting” and “band” small group systems. Such small dedicated groups that gave structure and accountability to the devotional and spiritual life and had been the basic structure of Methodism now collapsed. Soon, by the middle to late twentieth century, Methodism was probably best known for its dedication to social action. Attempts at reviving the old system have so far been only partially successful.

I have seen a similar thing happen in the Seventh-day Adventist Church with Ellen G. White, founder and prophet. A complete religious reformer, she took a prominent role in the doctrinal reform relating to the literal return of Jesus, the immutability of God’s law, and the wholistic view of humanity. Extensively preaching, teaching, and writing, she led in the founding of schools and the establishment of medical institutions. She had powerful experiences of communion with God, was deeply devotional, and spoke and wrote extensively on the spiritual life in all its aspects.

An examination of the scholarly work on her writings will reveal that after her death, Adventists have studied her mostly for what she has to say about doctrinal belief and Christian lifestyle. She has become, for most Seventh-day Adventists, an arbiter of theological questions and a champion of conservative lifestyle. What I am saying is not to belittle such contributions, but to point out how one-sided they are. You will find almost nothing written about her spirituality and teachings on the devotional life. A couple of years ago, I had a graduate assistant collect her writings on the subject of repentance and confession. The amount she wrote in this area is staggering, yet the denomination has done little or nothing with this material, because its scholarly interests lie in other subject areas. We could say much the same for other devotional topics.

In an attempt to lessen her impact on theological issues, some have even said that she is “just a devotional writer.” They see it as a way to relegate what she says to the prayer room rather than the classroom. That statement “just a devotional writer” has deeply disturbing implications. Is devotional theology any less crucial than dogmatic theology to the life of the church? Is not devotional theology the ultimate outworking of the Christian life? Perhaps we should rather say, “just a doctrinal theologian” instead.

All of these factors help us understand why there has developed such a hunger to meet God. The form of Christianity that has controlled the mainstream of the church in the West has leaned too far toward the side of the cognitive, intellectual explanation of Christianity. It should come then as no surprise that many Christians, even lifelong believers, crave anything that will help them experience God. This also explains why the charismatic/pentecostal forms of Christianity are by far the fastest-growing parts of the Christian church. The very essence of this movement is that God’s Spirit is active in the world and the life of the believer, and thus people with an experiential hunger often find fulfillment there.

It also explains why more and more people in the West have sought a religious experience in belief systems other than Christianity. The Christianity that they have seen or heard about is often the mainstream intellectual sort that strikes them as dry, boring, and irrelevant. The latest guru or New Age teaching is very often primarily propagating an experience of religion rather than a doctrine about God. Increasingly, postmodern people and others hunger for the direct touch of the divine.

Is Seeking God Valid?

Is it proper for a person to desire deeply and to strive deliberately for an actual encounter with God? Or is this the aim of a lesser soul craving the latest excitement? Could it be a wish for an experience that avoids serious thinking? I have already suggested that spiritual hunger is universal. Is it right to try to satisfy it?

The reason I raise this issue is that many people have asked me this question in different forms. “Shouldn’t we just believe,” they ask, “and not try to experience God?” Some have gone even further and argued that the desire for an experience with God is the wish of an immature believer who can’t just accept things without seeing them. I suggest that to seek to experience communion with God is not wrong or immature, but is actually following a God-planned path.

For most Christians, perhaps the best way to deal with such questions is to refer them to the Bible. Do believers in the Bible meet God? Do they desire to encounter Him? Do they walk and talk with Him and interact with Him? The answer, of course, is a resounding “Yes!” Indeed, if you carefully read Scripture one of the amazing things that emerges, one that often shocks our culture, is the free and frequent direct communication between God and humanity.

When our family went as missionaries to the mountains of northern Thailand, one of the first major cultural/religious differences we noticed was this very fact—the people expected divine action. They saw God or the evil one at work in daily life. I found that I, the supposed religious teacher, was much more dubious about the Lord’s presence and action than those who supposedly needed teaching. Finally I concluded, to my chagrin, that the people I was living among were much more like the biblical saints than I was. While I do not agree with everything they thought, it was good for me to see that they, along with the Bible, truly believed that God acted and could be experienced.

Although we could say much, much more on the topic, I believe this is sufficient to make the basic point clear. The Bible story, both Old and New Testaments, expects that true religion implies an experience of God’s presence. Israelite and Christian faith was and is not just a philosophy based on ideas, but a religion based on an ongoing interaction with God. If He was not relating in a real way with His people, something was wrong.

The Double Longing

The hunger for God is not to be denied, squelched, suppressed, or reasoned away. God has placed it in us to be nurtured, cherished, and satisfied as only He can do. He meant it to draw us on a quest, a search, a pilgrimage to find Him, and to be surprised by the discovery that before we began to look for Him, He had already for a long time been seeking us.

As Thad Rutter put it so beautifully, we discover the double longing.7 We learn first that we have a longing—a deep hunger for God and a sense of His presence. As we begin to pursue that intense desire, we encounter a second even stronger longing. God’s heart desperately longs for us. That increases even more our desire for Him, and the spiral of communion continues to grow.

Greater understanding of this double longing came to me through our grandson, Noah. For a number of months, our son and his family, including three-year-old Noah, lived in our basement. Noah and I were friends, and every morning when he awakened he would come up the stairs calling for me. “Grandpa, Grandpa, where are you? I haven’t seen you yet today.” Usually I was in my study, and we would talk and play awhile before I had to go to work. As you can imagine I longed to hear that voice every day. I must admit that I even called my office assistant several times to say that I’d be late for work because of a situation at home. Noah had overslept, and I couldn’t face the day without that time together. I wanted to meet my grandson even more than he did me. I can only faintly imagine how much God, our heavenly Father, longs to hear our voice reaching out to Him, saying, “Father, Father, where are you? I haven’t seen you yet today?” That shows the divinely ordained “double longing.”

Conclusion

The only way to satisfy the deep spiritual hunger of our age is to pursue the “double longing.” That is what this book is about. It invites you in a practical way to cultivate the spiritual path of communion with God that can both meet your longing for Him and allow you to bask in His longing for fellowship with you. If that is happening, all other true religion follows. But if that is missing, all other religious practices are meaningless. Please join me for the journey.

1 Thomas R Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (New York: Harper and Row, 1941).

2 Henri J. M. Nouwen, Making All Things New (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981).

3 Reproduced in Christianity Today, October 24, 1994, p. 75.

4 E.M. Bounds, Power through Prayer (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1961), p. 37.

5 F.L. Cross, ed., “Lutheranism,” The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1958). See also “Pietism.”

6 Bounds, p.48.

7 Thad Rutter, Jr., Where the Heart Longs to Go (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1998), pp. 17, 18ff.