Pleasure, pride and possessions are
also too shallow. They cannot satisfy the deepest desires of
our hearts. Pleasure is not what our hearts are truly looking for, but
joy. We don't need more things, but we do
need deep joy. It's not achievement we're
after, but significance. All of these things can only be
found, ultimately and eternally, in relationship with Jesus our Lord, which is
why John says, "The one who does the will of God lives forever."
According to C. S. Lewis, the
desires to do, to have, to be are merely the rumblings of a much deeper desire.
It is a desire so deep, so profound, that even Lewis couldn't find a word for
it. He sometimes spoke about it in his writings, this inconsolable longing for
something more. Sometimes he described it as beauty, other times as joy, but it
was about a deep existential yearning for
something that we can't name but know to be true. In his book The Weight of Glory, Lewis described it as "the
scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news
from a country we have never visited." It is
the longing for every good and perfect thing all at once, the longing for God
and his kingdom. Further, until that deepest of all desires is satisfied,
nothing else will ever be enough.
"The human heart was made for God,"
Augustine said, "and our hearts are restless till we find rest in
him." Once that desire is satisfied, however,
once we have turned to God and aligned ourselves with his good and eternal
purpose for our lives, we can experience earthly things as they were meant to be
experienced—in relationship with him.
The apostle John declared, "The
world and its desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God
lives"—lives!—"forever." If you think this world has things to enjoy,
you can't even imagine what's waiting for us in the life to come, in that
country we haven't visited yet but know to be true!
In Christ,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment