The Hunger that Satisfies: Digging Into Your Desires

Blessed Are You Who Hunger Now, for You Will Be Satisfied

When you’re lost, out and walking in the dark

Look down and light those embers in your heart

— "Fire Inside" by City Wolf

Seeing God

Years ago, a young man came to a hermit and said, “Master, I want to see God.”

“Very well, my son. Pray, ‘My God, I love you,’ one hundred times a day, and you will see God.”

The next week he returned. “Master, I prayed it one hundred times a day. Nothing happened. I want to see God.”

The old man smiled. “Well done. This week, pray it 1,000 times a day, and you will see God.”

Another week passed. “Master, I prayed it 1,000 times a day. Still nothing. I want to see God.”

The hermit nodded. “Very well. This week, pray it 10,000 times a day.”

When the young man came back again, he was deflated, sad, and angry.

“Master, I prayed the prayer 10,000 times a day—and still, nothing.”

“Nothing?” said the old man. “Come with me.”

He led the young man to a river.

“Do you want to see God?”

“Yes.”

“Then follow me.”

The hermit waded into the river—first up to his calves, then his waist, then his neck. The young man followed until he could barely touch the bottom. He started to speak: “Master, I don’t understand. I want to—”

Before he could finish, the hermit plunged his head underwater. The young man fought, clawed, struggled—but to no avail. His strength began to fail.

Then, the hermit pulled him up.

“My son, when you want to see God as desperately as you just wanted to breathe, then your desire will be satisfied.”

Created from—and for—Desire

“God, in a plan of sheer goodness, created man to share in his own blessed life.”

— Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1

God had a dream when He created you. A desire. The Church calls this the universal call to holiness, and those who answer that call are honored as saints. That call is inscribed deep in our hearts. It’s what we refer to as a vocation—a calling to become who we were made to be.

And as St. Thomas Aquinas once said:

“Man is desire.”

One Problem, Three Responses

Desire is a fact. It’s not good or bad by itself—it simply is. So the question becomes: What do we do with it?

Christopher West describes three typical responses to desire:

1. The Addict indulges every craving, often in shallow or destructive ways, harming others and ultimately himself.

2. The Stoic sees the addict’s wreckage and concludes that desire itself is dangerous. He tries to tame it with control and moderation—but never lives fully.

3. The Mystic seeks to fulfill desire in God and His will.

On paper, the Stoic and the Mystic might seem similar. But history tells a different story. Where is the Stoic Mother Teresa? The Buddhist Francis of Assisi? The Stoic Catherine of Siena? The Buddhist Augustine?

They do not exist.

Their lives—if they can be called lives—are a slow waiting-to-die.

So we’re left with a tension: we want to unleash our desires, yet we fear their power to destroy us.

What are we to do?

Follow the Path of Life

Would it be wise to purify our desires before we act on them? Absolutely.

But here’s the problem:

It’s our desires that need to be purified.

And we can’t purify them unless we first become aware of them.

So let’s start by letting them out.

Bring superficial desires to light. Examine them. Dig into them. And when you do, you’ll often discover that what seemed shallow was pointing to something deep.

Imagine your 12-year-old daughter asks for a smartphone.

The Stoic mom says, “No.”

The Mystic mom says, “Why?”

“To talk to my friends and keep up on social media.”

“And why do you want that?”

“To feel closer to them. To connect.”

“And why do you want that?”

“Because I want real friendship.”

And that—the longing for intimacy—is a good and holy desire.

Maybe you still say no to the phone. Or maybe you talk about how phones can get in the way when people are together but distracted. Maybe you get a dumb phone. The important thing is:

When you dig into a superficial desire,

You uncover a deeper one.

Dig In

The young man said he wanted to see God. But did he?

Did he want it the way he wanted air when he was drowning?

If you asked a drowning man why he wants air, he might say, “Because I want to live.” Ask him why he wants to live, and he might just say, “What else is there?”

But ask that same man why he wants to see God, and he might not have an answer. Perhaps no one led him to ask that question deeply. He was taught to want God—and that’s better than nothing—but it’s not the same as discovering that desire for himself.

This is why journaling is so powerful.

Journaling lets us unleash our desires on paper. It’s safer than acting them out. It also helps us evaluate those desires before we act. If you’d like help exploring your desires:

Check out the “Life Begins with a Dream” worksheet.

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