The Soul’s Stomach Growl
By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker
January 1, 2025
We have all experienced the symptoms of hunger: the rumbling growl, the gnawing pit deep in our stomach, low energy, and irritability. Like a persistent tap on the shoulder, hunger relentlessly demands our attention, pushing other thoughts aside until its demands are met.
We have all felt hunger pangs, but it is unlikely that anyone reading this has endured starvation. While we may not have experienced starvation, we know its horrific toll. The starving are emaciated, frail, and gaunt with hollow, sunken eyes surrounded by sharp cheekbones as they stare blankly into space. Their skin clings to their skeletal frame, exposing every rib and joint. Their limbs are thin and fragile. Without food, they die a slow, pitiful, agonizing death.
What Does Your Soul Look Like?
If you had a spiritual mirror, what would your soul look like? Would it be fit, trim, and muscular — or emaciated and gaunt with hollow, sunken spiritual eyes and a feeble heart?
Too many souls are starving. They are spiritually malnourished. Because they are malnourished, they are too weak to withstand the inevitable troubles of life with a confident faith in God’s wise and good providence or to be encouraged by his promises to be with us and strengthen us in our trials.1
Unlike physical starvation, however, spiritual starvation is subtle and insidious. We can be starving spiritually and never realize it, because one of the symptoms of spiritual starvation is indifference to spiritual things. A starving soul has little appetite for God’s word. The soul is hungry, but its spiritual stomach never growls. The starving soul is tepid — it is lukewarm.2
Junk Food for the Soul
When we are hungry, it is easy to resort to eating junk food: chips, cookies, pastries, and the like. Junk food is easy to get, tastes good, and satisfies hunger. While it alleviates hunger pangs, junk food is unhealthy. The long-term consequences include increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. A diet high in junk food can lead to cognitive decline, digestive disorders, dental problems, motivational and mental health issues, liver damage, bone weakness, and premature aging of the skin.
When our souls are hungry, we are tempted to reach for spiritual junk food to alleviate the deep hunger within. Like physical junk food, spiritual junk food comes beautifully packaged and enticingly marketed. It promises to satisfy our hunger for meaning and happiness but delivers flabby souls.
Spiritual junk food comes in many forms. Here are a few examples.
Sunday Is Game Day
Sports are good, but like most good things, sports can become an idol that replaces God in our lives and in the lives of our children. Many Christian parents place a greater priority on their children’s participation in sports than on worship. They would never dream of having their children skip a game or practice on Sunday but do not hesitate to skip church if it conflicts with the sports schedule. Coaches used to avoid scheduling games or practices on Sundays, or not until the afternoon, to avoid conflicts with church services. That is no longer the case. As a recent Gallup survey found, 56% of Americans seldom or never attend a religious service, and only 21% go weekly.3 There was a time when families went to church and then to their children’s sports events. Now, it appears, Sunday is just game day [emphasis added].
Contrast this with Eric Liddell, a Scottish athlete and devout Christian who famously refused to compete in the 100-meter race at the 1924 Paris Olympics because the event was scheduled on a Sunday. Though he believed rightly that his athletic ability was a gift from God, he did not allow that gift to become his idol.4
It Is All About Me
An insidious form of spiritual junk food is shallow preaching that tickles ears:
The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (2 Timothy 4:3–4).
Too many sermons are spiritually narcissistic, falsely claiming that God promises happiness and prosperity in this life if we have enough faith.
Try selling that gospel to the Christians who have been and continue to suffer martyrdom for their faith, or to believers throughout history who have endured immense suffering while faithfully serving Christ. In stark contrast to the prosperity gospel, the author of Hebrews commends the early Christians for their remarkable response to the confiscation of their property: “For you had compassion on those in prison and joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better possession and an enduring one” (Hebrews 10:34). The writer of Hebrews did not accuse them of lacking faith; instead, he highlighted their faith as the driving force behind their Christlike response to persecution.
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17–18).
And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
Vulgar, Immoral, Violent Entertainment
It is often said, “We are what we eat.” What is your soul feeding on? Paul instructs us to fill our minds with
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (Philippians 4:8).
Does what you watch meet those standards? Or is it filled with immorality, vulgarity, greed, pride, and violence? Does your entertainment nurture or corrupt your soul? Does it elevate or debase? Is your soul healthier because of the entertainment you consume, or sicker?
Substituting Social Media for the Bible
How much time are you spending on social media? Do you spend more time on social media than in the Bible? As with sports, social media can be good, but it can also become an idol and an addiction. Social media will not make you a better person. But God’s word will. Jesus prayed,
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth (John 17:17).
And Paul instructs us:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).
A New Year’s Resolution — A Healthy Soul
Research consistently shows that a majority of American adults make New Year’s resolutions, and the most common ones cluster around saving money, eating healthier, exercising more, losing weight, and spending more time with family and friends. Three of the five most common resolutions relate to physical health.
What is good for the body is good for the soul. Make a resolution to get more spiritual exercise and eat better spiritual food.
Our souls are not made for junk food; they are made for God. Only God can satisfy the hunger of our souls. C. S. Lewis captures this truth beautifully:
God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.5
Five Spiritual Resolutions
As you enter the new year, make five spiritual resolutions:
- Commit to daily Bible reading.
- Develop a consistent habit of prayer.
- Become a member of a church that faithfully teaches the whole counsel of God, including its challenging truths.
- Prioritize regular church attendance with your family, ensuring that neither sports, other activities, nor sleep keep you from worship and service.
- Limit time on social media and choose uplifting and wholesome entertainment.
As Christian school leaders, we have the profound privilege and responsibility of nurturing the minds and souls of our students. In a world saturated with distractions, counterfeit comforts, and spiritual junk food, it is easy to overlook the subtle yet significant signs of spiritual malnourishment — in ourselves and in those we lead. As we reflect on our spiritual health and that of our school communities, let us resolve to prioritize feeding our souls with the rich and nourishing truths of God’s word. This new year, let us embrace the opportunity to lead by example, fostering environments where spiritual vitality flourishes and where Christ is glorified in all we do.
Our souls growl with hunger for good soul food. Do not feed them junk. Resolve to nourish your soul with the nutrient-rich food of the Bible, solid biblical preaching, prayer, and wholesome, uplifting entertainment.
We cannot give what we do not possess.