If You Don't Feel Full, It's not Righteous

Dear Hangry Diners: 

Having just stepped away from my morning news feed, I’m inclined to observe that the world is a mess. Of course, 24-hour news cycles and constant doom scrolling would lead even the most stable among us to become unmoored, assuming the great apocalypse is only moments away. But that’s how it works when attention is monetized. The financial incentives are out of whack—the purpose of information is not to keep me informed, but to keep me glued, to awaken in me an insatiable hunger for the next screen. I’m ashamed to admit how well it works, because even as I write this I am tempted to click back on the updates of some story, issue, poll or commentary. It all triggers in me a deeper longing to be filled, to push myself away from the smorgasbord of disaster and say, “I’ve had enough.”

It brings to me a whole new understanding of Jesus’ comment in the Beatitudes about fullness. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness,” Jesus said, “for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5.6). The shift in my understanding isn’t a fresh take on righteousness, but rather the measure of when righteousness is found. If you’re feasting on righteousness, you’ll find yourself filled. In other words, unrighteousness is the empty calories of unquenchable desire, the constant need to go back again and again to fill your plate with the emptiness that is consumerism. 

It’s important to recognize that the opposite of righteousness isn’t evil; it's hollowness. This means the occasional snack from the world’s junk-food informational buffet isn’t evil; it’s just deceivingly unbalanced. Hunger becomes the barometer of righteous intake. If you find yourself only wanting more because the previous consumption failed to satisfy, you can be assured what you consumed wasn’t righteous. Empty information functions like an addictive drug. Its very ingestion numbs our capacity to moderate our appetite; we return to devour more of the very substance driving our hunger but never satisfying.

If, on the other hand, your hunger and thirst lead you to green pastures and still waters, there will come a point at which you’ll be able to say, “I’m full, that was great, my soul is restored.” You return not out of voracious, aching anxiety, but out of a simple need to be fed again, to be restored, to be filled. Unfortunately, as Jesus points out, the hunger and thirst for righteousness is an acquired taste. Just a few verses later (Matthew 5.10-12), Jesus links the ingestion of righteousness with persecution. Those who push themselves away from the table of informational junk food are going to take some heat from those who profit from and are addicted to the empty calories of unrighteous consumption. They will appeal to your pangs of withdrawal, but for those who break free, Jesus promises great reward, not only in a heavenward outcome but also a this-world fullness and satisfaction.

I’m pretty sure it is high time to change my diet. Finding fullness from a better menu, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor