Wanderer Three

What?  Another Wanderer?  You mean there are more kinds of lost people in the world?  Yes, Yes, and Yes. 

Psalm 107:17-22,

¹⁷     Some were sick through their sinful ways,

and because of their iniquities endured affliction;

¹⁸     they loathed any kind of food,

and they drew near to the gates of death.

¹⁹     Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

and he saved them from their distress;

²⁰     he sent out his word and healed them,

and delivered them from destruction.

²¹     Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,

for his wonderful works to humankind.

²²     And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,

and tell of his deeds with songs of joy.

Here we see the self-destructive, the insatiable.  These wanderers don’t need anything but themselves to be miserable.  I have made plenty of beds to lie in during this life.  This passage makes me think of those who have to have more, be more, but never themselves.  They have their tummies tucked, their lips enlarged, they starve themselves, or medicate themselves into “a new you”…wait, should I add sex, fantasy and food in this category?  Some don’t feel a lot because they escape through the porthole of their making.  Their sin is simply the travel time in this porthole, and the affliction is the journey itself.  It is hard to realize that you have turned on yourself.  When they are delivered from this destruction, these people understand the nuances of sin, and the oneness of Satan and lies.

This makes me think of all of the women that I am “supposed” to be; the women that magazines and TV force upon me until I just want to send those girls a pie in the mail.  These women have glowing complexions and thighs the size of my forearm.  Emaciated, they slither up runways in almost nothing, looking seductive, pouty, and, well…hungry.  They are literally empty.  They loathe food of any kind.  They loathe anything that would fill them.  There is a need for some people to be completely empty.  When God fills, they reject.  It is equivalent to spiritual stomach flu.  To be filled is too painful, so they remain sick and afflicted by there own self-loathing.  They have turned on themselves.

This is true for any means of self-medication.  Anything that we do to empty God from our life in order to make the cavern of desolation larger identifies as a mechanism for this brand of wandering.  Replacing God with vanities, things that feed our egos, addictions and power, this is guaranteed to carry us to the gates of death.  There we will stand, no longer able to understand the difference between the Creator and the created.  We have worshipped all of the things around us, thinking that we would fill that “God void” that we have.  We are sick, afflicted, loathing and distressed, standing at the gates of death.  We cry out.

There are days when I choose to pick up one more thing, do one more load of dishes, take or make one more phone call, think that “one more” will make me a little more in control of my life.  I begin to move on my own scale of acceptable effectiveness, and soon, the rest of the world has a different texture.  It is one in which I have to strive to keep up…the goal becomes simply running on the wheel.  I substitute a false world for the one that Christ has intended for me; one that has a light burden and a sense of freedom.  If I stay here, I begin to see myself differently.  I hate who I become.  I have pushed God out of His home, His temple and I have filled it with my day, my hours, my minutes.  It is never worth it.  I feel sick and distressed.

To these wanderers, He sends out His word.  That is really awesome.  This word fixes our thoughts, and straightens out who God is and who we are.  That is why it is so crucial that we are in the word, as often as we can be.  It tells me who I am, and when I pull away from Him and fill my insatiable cavern with other things than Jesus, the Spirit leads me to things like Hebrews 10:38, “My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.”  I have to advance, and the only way that I know to do this is abiding in my Savior.

Again, our superhero not only delivers, but heals His people…win, win, win.  So we thank the Lord again for His steadfast love, we offer Him thanksgiving and songs.  So, lift your voices and thank Him, today, because you are delivered from the gates of death.  Amen.

Father, lift up all of the wanderers to you, today.  Fill them with you and heal all of the ways that they and we afflict ourselves.  Thank you for your steadfast love.  Deliver us, today Lord.