The longing for things to be good again is one of the deepest yearnings of the human heart. It has been buried in the depths of our souls ever since we lost our true home. For our hearts remember Eden.  Our souls remember the days of joy and total fellowship of the Father as we walked together in the garden. 

Most of the time this beautiful, powerful longing flows like an underground river below the surface of our awareness — so long as we are consoled by some measure of goodness in our lives. While we are enjoying our work, our family, our adventures, or the little pleasures of this world, the longing for things to be good again seems to be placated. But when trials and heartbreaks wash in, the longing rises to the surface. This is especially true after times of severe testing, because during the testing we are rallying. But when the storm subsides, the longing for things to be good again rises up to demand relief.

How we handle this longing — so crucial to our identity and the true life of our heart — how we listen to it but also guide it in right or wrong directions, this determines our fate. God has given each human soul a capacity and drive, a primal aspiration for life. This is as fundamental to you as your own survival.  The epicenter of our being is the deep longing to aspire for things that bring us life, to plan for those things, to take hold of them, to enjoy them, and start the cycle over as we move toward new things! This is the essential craving for life given to us by God.

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.”  (George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss)  This hunger allows human beings to survive the most terrible ordeals; it also enables us to savor all the goodness of this world, to love, and to create works of beauty.

One of the biggest enemies of living the fullness of life that Jesus came to offer us is the idea that “Jesus doesn’t act like that anymore.” (Or, “Jesus doesn’t act like that with me.”) Sure —he was amazing in the Gospels. But that was then and this is now and things have changed. Or so the idea goes. In one fell swoop, this belief shuts down just about everything and anything we could hope to experience with Jesus. It simply slams the door and leaves us standing on one side and him on the other. You wonder if this isn’t implied in the famous passage from the book of Revelation where Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (3:20).

This takes place later than the Gospel stories, mind you — long after the resurrection and the ascension. Jesus is asking for intimacy with us. Who shut that door and left Christ standing in the street? It clearly wasn’t Jesus. He’s outside, asking us to let him in. My prayer for Our Redeemer is that we will individually, and collectively, open the door to Jesus and His transformative power.

Pastor Dave