I remember a conversation that I had in the waning days of being at Christian college. A guy I had known since I started there but that I had not had a lot of contact with in the past few years came up to me. He asked me what I was going to do after school. I told him that I was going to go to grad school and get some extra classes and get my teaching certification. He laughed at me and said that I was not going to be making a lot of money if I did that. I did not know what to say at the time. But I have thought a lot about that since then. If I had a chance to reply again, I would say something like, “Well if I was going to this backwater, backward, hick college just so that I could be rich, I would never have came! Instead, I came here to deepen my relationship with the Lord so that He could guide me to where He wants me to be and I am confident that His plan includes me paying my bills!”

Now I am not judging that guy for being focused on career success. The things of this world glitter and sparkle in ways that definitely make them attractive. Nor can we forget that we have physical needs for eat and drink and human intimacy (emotional and physical) which are built into us. Even monks and Catholic priests need to meet these needs, though they may meet then in different ways.

However, we cannot allow our desire to pay our bills, have a nice home and car, pay for our children’s trips to camp, etc… snuff out our hunger for the Lord and what He wants us to know and do. As people of faith, we need to be hungry to know God and what He has for us. God wants us to have a hunger for Him!

I have read a lot about the Vision Quest of some Native Americans like Lame Deer, Black Elk, and others (the Native Americans of the Southwest). All of the books regarding Native Americans that I have read and Native Americans I have met with, have mentioned some kind of Vision Quest tradition. They do not all do it same way or for the same reason. Some may take drugs like peyote. Some may take an extended time in a sweat lodge. However, I have read several accounts of American Indians climbing onto a rock in the middle of the desert or finding some other secluded spot and meditating for several days until they start seeing hallucinations. They may take a blanket and maybe some meager provisions like a little water and food.

They do this because they are hungry to commune with Talking God, the Great Spirit, White Buffalo Calf Woman, Wanka-Tanka or whoever. They are crying for a vision for their future and to understand the present.

I am not saying that people of Judeo-Christian beliefs should do this. I am saying that the reason Native Americans are crying for a vision is that they are hungry for wisdom, for knowledge, for communion with the One-Above-All. We need to get some of that hunger in our spirit too!

I believe that God wants them to communion with Him and He wants to communion with us too! I believe that if we are crying for a vison, His vision, if we are hungry for the Lord, He will take care of our other needs.

God, please birth in me a willingness to lay down the things in this world that glitter and sparkle to want to see you more clearly, follow you more nearly, and love you more dearly! Help us to trust that you know our physical needs better than us and will take care of them.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

———————————————————————————-W.