longing

          Throughout our lives we pursue things that we hope will give us fulfillment, happiness. Too many believe that happiness comes through acquiring money when, actually, it merely eliminates a fear of poverty. Some find “the ultimate rush” in sex, alcohol, drugs. Others look for their significant other, in hopes that they will find their own soul in relationships. Expectations in relationships can be disappointing. Some find meaning in status, success in business, music, design, or theatre.

Yet, underlying all of these pursuits is something deeper— longing. British author C. S Lewis once wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Quite a point to ponder.

Disappointment can be a major catalyst, igniting our deepest inner longing. Not the trivial regrets we feel when we realize the frivolity of some things. Rather those depth-of-soul longings for something more, something deeper, solid, and incorruptible. We want a security found in the bedrock of all being as the sanctuary for our lives.

In recent times, the value of soul, of a single life, has been so diminished that those of us who remain barely react to the loss. The Evening News has dulled our senses. Yet we are vessels without a rudder when a death comes near. It shakes us. We have no emotional or spiritual mechanisms to cope with this new, final reality. Thus do we float on a vacuous sea of fog, with no rudder or compass to set us back on course. For me, this has always seemed a forlorn loss of deeper resolution.

I, too, have this deep longing. Yet I know that, someday, it will be utterly fulfilled in a restoration of my soul with the God who made me, and made us all. Is this a naive fantasy to which I cling? I think not! There are too many compiled coincidences in my life for this longing to go unsatisfied. Although, it may be in another world, most likely, I do have such great expectations to anticipate in my future. How about you?

Have a nice week,

Gary