Food for Thought

In his 1855 poem Andrea del Sarto the poet Robert Browning wrote "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" I recently heard a woman share at her father’s funeral how he regularly used this quote to challenge his children to aim for high, ambitious goals, not just those that are comfortably within one’s grasp.

              This thought of reaching for more than the comfortably attained is a challenging one.

When I think about our personal relationship with our Lord, I pray and trust that each of us have attained at the very least a personal relationship with him.  A relationship where we love him because he first loved us, we communicate with him through prayer on a regular basis, worship him, and enjoy studying his word.

 But should we be grasping for more?  A progressively deeper relationship that causes us to stretch beyond our grasp?  In Philippians 3:10 (NLT) Paul writes:  I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.  By this time Paul had experienced a supernatural meeting with Jesus on the Damascus road and had over several years become an accomplished church planter and evangelist.  But as I read this and the rest of the chapter, its clear he felt there was much more beyond his grasp.  

We live in a culture where ‘more’ has become the religion of the secular crowd. More money, more toys, more entertainment, and more pleasure. The list goes on. But more of them are realizing that simply having more of that sort of thing does not bring peace and satisfaction sometimes leading to a tragic end.  And this even applies to those who would apparently have more than most of us could only dream about.

Perhaps Paul’s longing and the disappointing experiences of many was the inspiration for the lyrics of this old gospel song:

More of You, more of You, I’ve had it all, but what I need Is more of You.

Of things I’ve had my fill, but yet I hunger still; empty and bare,

Lord hear my prayer for more of You.

May this be our prayer when we hunger for more.

Pastor Dave

Pastor Dave