I Am Hungry to Know How to Live

By B. Barrow Hamby

I am hungry to know how to live. That’s a good kind of hunger!
We are hungry for answers to questions that arise when we look around us in life and find it so challenging to make sense of it all. The crow, and cricket, and crocodile don’t ask these questions—but we human beings do. Our aching search to find meaning in our lives indicates that we are purposely made that way. Our very hunger for answers is evidence that there must be answers! Or do we conclude with the worldly-wise man that it’s all futility—our questions are in vain? If perchance there is someone like us—a Person “out there”—he must be getting a good laugh, mocking our useless endeavors to understand. This book will spur you on to a quest that is full of hope . . . to an anchor that holds, a certainty that doesn’t disappoint . . . to a hunger that is richly satisfied.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B. Barrow Hamby
• Release date: Sep 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9780989910354

B. Barrow Hamby

Beverlie Barrow Hamby has "worn many hats" over the course of her life. In her younger years she worked in medical research as a molecular biologist, and occasionally as an adjunct college professor. Later, after she and her husband adopted their two children, she dedicated her life to the privilege of motherhood and to home-schooling her son and daughter over the next twenty years. Beverlie describes herself also as having all her life been a "searcher," not ever quite able to settle in to living life merely on the surface. Now she has returned to a "first love": writing.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Section One

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Section Two

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Section Three

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Endnotes

Author Page

I am hungry to know how to live. That’s a good kind of hunger!

We are hungry for answers to questions that arise when we look around us in life and find it so challenging to make sense of it all. The crow, and cricket, and crocodile don’t ask these questions—but we human beings do. Our aching search to find meaning in our lives indicates that we are purposely made that way. Our very hunger for answers is evidence that there must be answers! Or do we conclude with the worldly-wise man that it’s all futility—our questions are in vain? If perchance there is someone like us—a Person out there—he must be getting a good laugh, mocking our useless endeavors to understand. This book will spur you on to a quest that is full of hope . . . to an anchor that holds, a certainty that doesn’t disappoint . . . to a hunger that is richly satisfied.

Beverlie Barrow Hamby has worn many hats over the course of her life. In her younger years she worked in medical research as a molecular biologist, and occasionally as an adjunct college professor. Later, after she and her husband adopted their two children, she dedicated her life to the privilege of motherhood and to home-schooling her son and daughter over the next twenty years. Beverlie describes herself also as having all her life been a searcher, not ever quite able to settle in to living life merely on the surface. Now she has returned to a first love: writing

Preface

Every thoughtful human being inevitably asks questions as he observes life around him. Mankind broods over the problems, losses and sorrows, injustices and tragedies of human existence—and often despairs, stricken at heart at being unable to interpret it all.

Trying to explain the baffling mystery, people throughout history have come up with countless worldviews. I propose that fundamentally there are only two worldviews—either this world is all there is to reality—or it is not all there is.

The one view claims this cosmos—this earth and all that the life lived here entails—is simply it. There is purportedly nothing outside the cosmos. We simply explain the present world based on this world itself (and on the operation of chance). Supposedly everything in the cosmos is part of and influenced by everything else in it—and is thereby self-explanatory (explains itself). Resultantly, there are no purpose and no goal in existence. It just happened. And there is no progress because everything is on an endless cycle—both coming from and going nowhere. We ourselves came from nothing and go to nothing. We’re born, we live, we die. Good-bye.

Or is there something beyond this cosmos? The biblical worldview believes there is a Designer of this cosmos, an intelligent Creator who is outside of and transcends His creation. This worldview submits for consideration that the Creator of this world can provide the explanation for the cosmos as it is. The Bible asserts that God had a purpose in making this world and us. It instructs that mankind, as the apex of His creation, is created in His image—and as such, designed with the intention of sharing His character and fellowship with Him forever. Additionally, this Creator can reveal to the questioning mind: This is where you started, and this is where you’re going.

…

Every intelligent person finds four questions that press upon him begging for answers.

How did we come to be—and why? What went wrong?

Is there any hope? and How will it all end?

With no belief in a sovereign God, modern materialism and the humanistic worldview (a man-centered ideology that includes a basic tenet that man is intrinsically good) maintain that humanity’s existence as a whole is the result of a fortuitous accident. It considers the origin of the universe as impossible to explain (most likely merely the result of a long, complex evolution). It asserts that since this life is all that we have scientific knowledge of, it is up to us humans to solve the world’s problems, define what is right and wrong, and give meaning and purpose to life through human love and natural reason. This worldview gives political, sociologic, economic, or psychological explanations for what’s gone wrong with life—and thus the adherent’s answers for any hope must come from human efforts to find solutions in those respective fields.

It cannot offer any adequate accounting for why evil exists but lamely suggests it is just all part of the way things are. A classic example of a solution according to a godless worldview is Marxist communism, which concluded the problem was social inequality—and if everyone were forcibly made equal then evil would disappear. Obviously, it has not. Significantly, many atheists (perhaps some of the most intelligent atheists—and likely the more honest atheists) admit that the primary reason they choose not to believe there is a God is that they do not want there to be a God. They simply do not want to be accountable to anyone other than themselves—especially to an unseen Creator who intrudes upon their morality. A worldview denying the existence of a God is more comfortable for some people—at least temporarily.

In contrast, a biblical (and Christian) worldview answers the question of how we (and the world we live in) came to be in terms of the doctrine of creation. In the beginning God created . . . (Genesis 1:1 NKJV)—and everything follows from that. It teaches that God made the world good but that one of His creatures fell and became the catalyst for a decision by the first human beings that damaged our world. Intentional human sin (rebellion of the creature against the Creator) brought consequences against mankind and onto the earth itself that are not in themselves definable as good. Yes, we all know things are not as we would want them to be or as they ought to be. Earthquakes, injustice, infectious disease, a child’s cry, tumors, venomous snakes, famine, cruelty of man against man—none of this was intended by God. The biblical worldview believes everything wrong is ultimately traceable to human sin. The righteous wrath and judgment of our Creator is the cosmic consequence of our choice to rebel against His authority (not trusting His goodwill toward us)—and ultimately our rejecting Him.

Is there, then, any hope? There is only one worldview that accurately reveals mankind’s true problem—and its only real answer. If left to ourselves, there is no hope. But in the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ there is absolute hope. But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, died for us (Romans 5:8). Our hope as inveterate rebels against our Maker is that God Himself made a way for us to return to His favor. He sent His own Son to our earth. Jesus took on human nature to be as one of us—and as man, He took upon Himself the guilt of mankind’s sin (as well as the punishment of separation from our Maker we had brought on ourselves).

So where is human history headed? One worldview predicts our annihilation. The Bible, however, teaches that it concludes with the kingdom of Christ on earth—where the righteousness and justice of a good God will be applied under the lordship of Jesus, mankind’s Redeemer. It also promises a new heaven and a new earth where believers in Jesus (as the atonement for their sin) will no longer experience tears, pain, or sorrow; where the lame will leap, the blind will see, and where all that is wrong will be made right. Notably, this worldview also includes the very real threat of hell— eternal separation from God (from our very source of life, most significantly the eternal life of our spirits)—for some people.

…

Undoubtedly there remain many mysteries in life. Even as believers in a caring God, when sorrow intrudes into our lives, the mystery of unanswerable questions can edge us toward despair. And yet, the whole universe teems with mystery. It is recorded in history that long ago a man named Job suffered more tragedy in his life than any one man could seem possibly able to bear. But God drew near this agonizingly afflicted and deeply perplexed soul, and asked him a searching question: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? (Job 38:4 NKJV). By this he prodded Job to realize that mysteries equally insoluble as his own life’s problems were all around him—above his head and under his feet. God pointed out to Job man himself cannot explain the creation of the world; he cannot fully understand the light and darkness, places where the storehouses are of wind and snow, the essence of storms, the influence of sunshine, or the instincts of animals. Mysteries all.

Should we then be surprised if we find that in God’s dealings with us human beings, many times we will not find our questions answered? For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8–9 NKJV). God, our Maker, has the right to choose not to answer all our questions. Secondarily, we are not capable of understanding all His ways and reasons—any more than a very young child can comprehend the mysteries of human life. But what God does want us to know is that we are infinitely dear and valuable to Him, and behind all the mystery is a Father’s heart beating in love for His children. Jesus told His cherished disciples, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12 NKJV). And He said to Peter, You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later on" (John 13:7).

May you hear that same kind voice pleading, Trust me—and Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27 NKJV). I invite you, reader, to come with me and explore in these pages this great Lover of your soul’s unchanging love, and to trust Him—even when you cannot yet see or fully understand.

Section I

…

The Search for the Gate

Chapter 1

I Am Hungry

I am hungry, and I cannot find bread that satisfies. I have tried many different kinds of bread . . .

I tried the bread of pleasure and entertainment, one round after another, but the brief satisfaction evaporated like the dew. I tried art, music, literature, and the supposedly high things of culture, but I found no lasting satisfaction there. I tried the bread of work worthy in the eyes of men and hoped accomplishment would win an identity for me that would meet my need, but none of that satisfied any longer. I thought surely the bread of wealth would assuage my hunger, but material possessions and a comfortable lifestyle left me still wanting something—something else. I tried the bread of philosophy, studying human nature and all angles of the issues and problems of life, debating and discussing, and discussing and debating in never-ending circles. I could find in philosophy no peace.

I tried communing with nature and sought bread in the beauty of creation. I wandered by the seashores and climbed the mountains, asking, Is it there, is it there? But my voice only cried back at me in long, hollow echoes, and I hungered still. Surely human fellowship—love relationships, the joys of family life—would make me whole, I reasoned. But even that, even the best it could offer, was not enough. I tried the bread of social service, of being a good person, giving of my time and energy to meet mankind’s needs, but all my good deeds left me still empty. Perhaps change would feed me. That’s it! I at length concluded. A new environment, a new situation—I’ll quit my job, I’ll move to a new town, I’ll break out of this marriage and try a fresh start with someone else. Or maybe following these new ideas and views about life’s purpose and these innovative breakthroughs—a revolution altogether—surely that would produce paradise for me. And yet . . .

So many messages pounding at the door of my mind, all promising satisfaction. Yet all these breads could only go so far—and no farther—to assuage my soul-hunger. That nameless inner longing remains.

Is this your experience? We are all looking for certain things. Where are peace, joy, happiness, security, significance? Where is life in a very real sense worthy of the name?

Many centuries ago a powerful king, renowned throughout the world for his wisdom, wrote a lengthy treatise resulting from his own personal quest for value. He had determined to seek until he discovered what is of real value in life, and he had all the resources available for his search any human being could possibly desire. He wrote in descriptive detail about the myriad avenues under the sun proposed by humanity throughout its history for pursuing significance in life.

After long years of the most diligent searching for some fixed unchanging value that could serve as a proper basis for living, that great seeker felt all his efforts had been like "grasping for wind’—it was all elusive, transitory, fleeting. The Preacher, as he called himself when he compiled his conclusions, could not, after all, claim to have discovered the answer for which he had sought, but he wrote a very telling statement. He succinctly concluded that the whole duty of man is reverence for God and obeying Him (see Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The very wise man had not found the certainty he yearned for under the sun—that is, on this earth, in this life. He was compelled by his observations, therefore, to seek the value he longed for above the sun, so to speak.

Centuries later, another great searcher expressed the opinion that the modern world had lost God and that without Him, it couldn’t live. It seemed prophetic. We are a world that has lost God—and we are a broken, bleeding world. Mankind has chosen to go it alone, without God. We find self-sufficiency a better way, a more attractive way—and so the independent human race leaves out God. And because it leaves out God, its Creator, all this choice can essentially offer is a mirage.

My life is a journey. You and I are on a pilgrimage; we are sojourners. We entered this world, began this journey, and we’re all heading toward a destination. We do not need to travel very far along before the rose-colored glasses we may have started off with do not work anymore. We begin to see that life has difficulties along the way—and soon enough we grow tired. We look around in this desert, hoping to find water to refresh us, and, thankfully, we see in the distance what appears to be a supply. Ah, over there! But when we finally arrive there, we find no water—no water at all. It is just an illusion shimmering in the sands. Over and over the hopeful thing that seems close enough to grasp eludes us, escapes us. How long can we go on and on and on, thus bewildered (and mocked and deluded by mirages)?

The stark and immutable reality is that nothing less than God Himself can fill our hungry souls—for the soul’s capacity was designed by God for Himself. My soul belongs to God, my Maker. He alone can satisfy.

If I am at long last realizing that all my efforts to find the meaning I have so long sought have resulted in absolute futility—that I remain empty (and as desperately so as a pauper), then I may be on the verge of a most momentous threshold! I just may have found the gate, the entrance, to the life I so achingly seek.

Chapter 2

Nestled in

Our Cravings

Does your heart yearningly inquire, How then, do I live? Does your aching mind plead, Won’t someone tell me? Is there no one who can give me a key? Friend, I encourage you to ponder this thought: an answer lies nestled in our very cravings.

We are the work of God’s hands. It is written that He has planted eternity in men’s hearts (see Ecclesiastes 3:11). I myself cannot believe that He would have created desires within us, longings to reach the Infinite, merely to tantalize. Such a possibility does not fit the nature of the Father I know.

It is He Himself who has given us life. Will He not also give us all we need for living the life He intended when He created us? The very gift of the one promises the gift of the other. Our hunger to know how to live, then, is implanted by God, our Maker. Has He implanted a hunger that He will not satisfy?

A Sense of Lack

Our minds are restless because our God-given intellects seek a purpose. We seek a purpose beyond the pleasure of the moment. We seek a purpose beyond even a lifetime. There exists within us all a divinely instilled sense of purpose that reaches through the ages—which nothing under the sun can satisfy. Is there any hope of finding that purpose?

Let us observe the contrast between two men of whom the Master spoke. One man was a Pharisee, a learned man whose strict observance of certain practices gave him confidence that he was a righteous man; the other man was a tax collector, a profession that was often considered synonymous with cheating (see Luke 18:9–14).

They both happened to be at the same place at the same time. They were in a temple, so that tells us they were both in the same place in another sense: they were each seeking satisfaction, desiring to assuage their inner hunger for that something beyond what their day-to-day lives brought them. No doubt, in some way, they both wanted to establish that connection with their real purpose in existence.

Their methods of seeking satisfaction, however, were profoundly different. And perhaps we will see that that foundation made all the difference in their hope of finding.

One was a religious man—that is, a man who did all the right things outwardly to be a good person and felt rather smugly that he had