Love You Long Time

As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? – Psalm 42:1-2

For the vast majority of man’s time on earth, the main concern must have been lunch. At least that’s what Maslow’s hierarchy of needs postulates. The physiological needs, such as air, water, and food, form the base of a typical pyramid. The base includes all the “animal” aspects of life like sleep and sex. As best I can figure, sex is the only thing in the base that we can live without for very long. Of course, if you assume that the reason for animal life – including humans – is reproduction of selfish genes, then those that do not have sex to pass along their DNA do not live as long as those who do.

Some critics of Maslow’s pyramid argue that the hierarchical structure is a false. While all the listed needs may be more or less legitimate, the idea that sleep is more basic, somehow, than friendship or security is misleading. In real life, most of us have given up a lower level need for a higher level need. Morality is on the capstone of Maslow’s pyramid, implying that morality only becomes important when all the lower level needs are met. In a coherent, sensible society, the satisfaction of lower level needs is controlled by morality. A desperately hungry man may violate his morals to eat, but he knows he is doing something extreme.

God is trying to make us whole, to put us back together, to defragment us. If we are only a body, then we are mainly concerned with satisfying animal needs. If we recognize that we have a soul, then our needs change to emotional and relational objects. At the innermost is the spirit man who recognizes that the most intense hunger and thirst we can experience physically are but a mirage compared to that which gives us true satisfaction in life -- that gives us life.

For the person who seeks after God, hierarchies become meaningless. Needs are more like ripples in a pool, concentric circles leading us back to the point of origin, created by our entrance into material existence. The only thing that matters is His presence in our lives, His voice speaking to our spirit, His life flowing through us and out of us.

“… out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water …”