From Elder Jerffrey R. Holland and his book, “Trusting Jesus”. . . .
Some time ago, I read an essay referring to the “metaphysical hunger” in the world. The author was suggesting that men and women were dying, so to speak, from lack of spiritual nourishment in our time. That phrase, “metaphysical” hunger,” came back to me last month when I read many richly deserved tributes to Mother Teressa of Calcutta. One correspondent recalled her saying that as severe and wrenching as physical hunger was in our day—something she spent her entire life trying to alleviate—nevertheless, she believed that the absence of spiritual strength, the paucity of spiritual nutrition, was an even more terrible hunger in the world.
These observations reminded me of the chilling prophecy from the prophet Amos, who said so long ago, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11).
As the world slouches in this century, many long for something, sometimes cry out for something, but too often scarcely know for what. The economic condition in the world, speaking generally and certainly not specifically, is probably better than it has ever been in history, but the human heart is still anxious and often filled with great stress. We live in an “information age” that has a world of data available literally at our fingertips, yet the meaning of that information and the satisfaction of using knowledge in some moral context seems farther away for many than ever before.
The price for building on such sandy foundations is high. Too many lives are buckling when the storms come and the winds blow (see Matt. 7:24-27). In almost every direction, we see those who are dissatisfied with because of gnawing fear that others somewhere have more of them. In a world desperately in need of moral leadership, too often we see what Paul called “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). In an absolutely terrifying way, we see legions who say they are bored with their spouses, their children, and any sense of marital or parental responsibility toward them. Still others, roaring full speed down the dead end road of hedonism, shout that they will indeed live by bread alone, and the more of it, the better. We have it on good word, indeed we have it from the Word Himself, that bread alone—even a lot of it—is not enough (see Matthew 4:4: John 1:1).
During the Savior’s Galilean ministry, He chided those who had him feeding the five thousand with only five barley loaves and two fishes and now flocked to him expecting a free lunch. That food, as important as it was, was incidental to the real nourishment He was trying to give them. “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead,” He admonished them. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.” But this was not the meal they had come for, and the record says, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:49, 51, 66).
In that little story is something of the danger in our day. It is that in our contemporary success and sophistication we, too, may walk away from the vitally crucial bread of eternal life; we may actually choose to be spiritually malnourished, willfully indulging in a kind of spiritual anorexia. Like those childish Galileans of old, we may turn up our noses when divine sustenance is placed before us. Of course the tragedy then as now is that one day, as the Lord himself has said, “In an hour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the harvest ended,” and we will find our “souls [are] not saved” (Doctrine & Covenants 45:2; see Jer. 8:20).
I have wondered if someone reading this might feel he or she or those they love might be too caught up in the “thick of thin things,” and hungering for something more substantial and asking with the otherwise successful young man of scriptures, “What lack I yet?” (Matt. 19:20). I have wondered if someone reading this might be wandering “from sea to sea,” “turning to and fro” as the prophet Amos said (Amos 8:12), wearied by the pace of life in the fast lane or in trying to keep up with the Joneses refinance. I have wondered if any have picked up this book hoping to find to a deeply personal problem or to have some light cast on the most serious questions of the heart. Such problems or questions often deal with our marriages, our families,our friends, our health, our peace—or the conspicuous lack of such cherished possessions. It is to those who hunger that I address these thoughts. . . . continued. . . .
~~~Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Trusting Jesus (Deseret Book 2003, Salt Lake City, pgs 9-12.
