Scripture — Psalm 139:1-3, 7-8, 23-24 (NRSV)

O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

Devotion

In last Wednesday’s Life for Leaders devotion, I began to reflect on the exhortation: “Manage your hungers.” This advice is given by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky in their book Leadership on the Line. They recognize that “we all have hungers, which are expressions of our normal human needs” (p. 164). Yet these hungers can help us lead wisely or they can lead us astray. Thus, according to Heifetz and Linsky, when it comes to our hungers, we need to “manage them productively and fulfill them appropriately” (p. 164).

How do you manage your hungers? Heifetz and Linsky suggest this starting point: “First, know yourself, tell yourself the truth about what you need, and then appropriately honor those human needs. Every human being needs power and control, affirmation and importance, intimacy and delight. You cannot lead and stay alive by simply putting a silencer on yourself. Managing your hungers requires knowing your vulnerabilities and taking action to compensate for them. This begins with respecting your hungers” (p. 184).

Knowing and respecting our hungers is an essential element of inner work. Paying close attention to what’s going on in our minds and hearts is surely essential if we’re going to know our hungers. (See the devotion for February 11 for further reflection on paying close attention to yourself.) In fact, if you want to grow in your capacity for doing effective inner work, you might choose to set aside a good chunk of time to reflect on your hungers, desires, longings, etc. Though we’re usually familiar with our obvious desires, we’re often less aware of the deeper yearnings that influence us powerfully even and especially when they’re unconscious.

The inner work of identifying our hungers isn’t only something we do when we’re alone. Certainly, we can ask people who know us well what they observe about us and our motivations. I’m often impressed, for example, by what my spiritual director discerns about me as he listens attentively and prayerfully to me. But when it comes to wise companionship in the matter of inner work, we have no better partner than God, whose Spirit dwells with us and knows everything about us.

We see this truth in many biblical passages, but perhaps no more intensively than in Psalm 139. This psalm begins, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me. . . .  You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways” (139:1-3). God is pictured here as the exemplary inner worker, the One who knows everything about us. No matter where we go, the Spirit of God is with us (139:7).

The psalmist starts by recognizing that God knows him completely. He finishes Psalm 139 by inviting God to continue to examine his inner life, “Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts” (139:23). In particular, the psalm writer asks the Lord to “see if there is any wicked way in me” (139:24). We might paraphrase this as, “See the unsavory things in me that I might be inclined to ignore or deny. See the bad as well as the good.” This request implies that God will help us to know the unseemly things within us so that we might not be ruled by them. Because God sees the wicked ways in us, God is uniquely able to lead us “in the way everlasting” (139:24).

Though Psalm 139 doesn’t mention our hungers explicitly, it does point to the role God plays when it comes to managing our hungers. God sees all of our desires, the good, the bad, and everything in between. God knows what’s on the surface and what lies deep within us. The Spirit of God who sees everything about us will help us see ourselves more fully and truly.

Thus, when it comes to managing our hungers, we are not alone. The Spirit of God will help us see ourselves clearly, including our desires, longings, yearnings, and so forth. How does this happen? Sometimes it happens when we spend time in silence and solitude, seeking to hear the Spirit’s voice. At other times it happens when the Spirit speaks through the Word of God as we read the Bible or hear it preached. Sometimes the Spirit helps us to know our hearts through the wise counsel of sisters and brothers in Christ who understand us and are committed to our spiritual growth.

The fact that the Holy Spirit helps us know our hungers gets us going in the right direction when it comes to managing our hungers. But that’s not the end of the Spirit’s help. I’ll have more to say about this in tomorrow’s Life for Leaders devotion. For now, let me encourage you to consider the following questions.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Wonders All Around Us.

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