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Like it or not, we’ve all been born with a deadly sickness. This disease needs to be dealt with at some point along our journey or we will die not just physically but spiritually. We were all born with what I am calling “Spiritual Pica’s Disease.” Pica is the unnatural desire and craving to eat what is not edible. When my Mother used to be a nurse, she had a patient who battled this predicament called Pica. It is diagnosed when a person longs to eat things that are not considered food! They chase after meals made up of such things like wooden toothpicks, dirt, chalk, coal or even foam rubber. One woman, who was a nonsmoker, would burn cigarettes to get the ashes so she could eat them. And when her husband smoked, she would literally and eagerly follow him around with a cupped hand to catch the ashes as they fell. How would you like to sit down to a nice bowl of ashes? Well you just might if you had Pica’s Disease.

Why do I say that we have Spiritual Pica’s disease? If you open up your Bible to the verses that come from the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 44, you will discover that he is speaking here about the nation of Israel immersed within their idolatry! Rather than giving the praise and affection that only God deserved- they were wasting the best of their intentions and attentions upon their man made idols. God had blessed them with so many wonderful gifts that should have pointed them to the Giver- but they became so fascinated with their presents that they ignored the ultimate Presence of the Almighty One!

But before you think that this practice only occurred in the olden days, let me warn you that it still very much applies to every human being born today! We are all born with wandering souls. Because of sin, we have all inherited those insane desires that actually drive us to prefer the muck of this mess over the majesty of the Mighty God! All of us have turned to our own way! All of us have ignored God! All of us have chosen to do what we want rather than surrender to what he deemed best! God has prepared for us a banquet from heaven and we are settling for the slop of the fast food joints of earth! Isaiah could have been talking right to each and every one of us when he said in Chapter 44 and verse 20, “The man feeds on ashes, his deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, ‘Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Do you want to know why we don’t fight for the feast that God provides that includes the free gift of eternal life? It is because we have all been born with spiritual taste buds that prefer ashes instead of God’s home cooking! I admit that it is insane and inane to feed on ashes, but that’s exactly what we do when we trade the relationship that we could have with Jesus who is the true bread of life for whatever else we choose to find our soul nourishment upon! The very fact that we do not desire God’s ways naturally is pure evidence of our spiritual sickness that will lead to our own demise! What person who is healthy doesn’t want to eat food? What person who is in their right mind wouldn’t choose a hot bowl of spaghetti over a plate of tangled and knotted string?

But the problem is that we are not in our right minds! We are in desperate need of a divine reboot to renew our spirit to get back to rightfully meeting our hunger with a whole new choice of menu. This was the very condition of the disciples in the New Testament Gospel of John in Chapter 6. They suffered Spiritual Pica’s Disease! Jesus was offering them a whole new diet founded in surrendering their kitchens to God’s cooking! Jesus was offering them all a new relationship with the Chef! Jesus invited every individual in that crowd to “Come to me and you will never hunger or thirst again!” But not everybody came! Not everybody was hungry enough to surrender their heart! It says in John 6:66 that, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” This is a sad verse because it also describes too many who are still choosing to walk away today! They will dine on their own dirt before they will depend upon a new driver of their heart and soul. It describes people who have been presented with the way to live forever, by feeding on the benefits of Jesus’ death! They are presented with a feast of grace but they willfully push away from the table and turn back to chew upon the ashes of their own stubborn way.

What about you? Where do you go when your spirit is quenched and your soul is growling? Will you stick it out as a slave to your own pride and settle for rock soup? Or will you come to the Rock of Ages and cry out in humility, “Here I am God. Forgive me of my own ways and feed me until I am healthy and new!” Don’t die from a disease that you can be cured from. Don’t get stuck in the river of your own denial when you can swim in the ocean of God’s amazing grace!