hunger for reality

“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.  If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.  Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.  If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.  I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”

What we hunger for and desire is “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 yet visited”.

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Filed under: REFLECTION by James on Tuesday, January 11, 2011

5 Responses to “hunger for reality”

  1. Mike Emslie, on January 14th, 2011 at 23:05 Said:

    Absolutely true, I think… but it stirs up both joy and sadness in me… eternity with my Savior will be unspeakably joyful and yet on this side it is hard not to be a materialist!

  2. Mike Emslie, on January 14th, 2011 at 23:12 Said:

    In other words if I do not have enough faith to long for and wait for heaven I will seek the satisfaction of lesser desires that can be fulfilled now… and lose sight of the greatest desire!

  3. James, on January 15th, 2011 at 00:07 Said:

    Thanks for the comments Mike.
    There is no denying that there is a wrestling within us, a wrestling to submit to God and the truth of God. Yet once a decision to trust has been made, the wrestling becomes one of continually seeking out the ‘high vantage point’ (as Keller would say), the place where we can see things from the right perspective; the place where we allow our old hopes/desires to die, but where new hopes are fashioned. “For the joy set before him Christ endured the cross …” We need the Spirit and his power to lay down our godless middle-class materialist dreams. We need the liberty of Christ. We long for that joy.

  4. MCDONALD, on January 16th, 2011 at 15:06 Said:

    THE ONLY THING I FIND MYSELF WRESTLING WITH IS SIN IN MY OWN HEART. AS I SEEK MORE TO KNOW HIM THE MORE I FIND MYSELF MORE NOT KNOWING WHETHER I AM COMING OR GOING.

    I THINK ONLY WHEN HE IS HERE WE ALL – BELIEVERS IN CHRIST- TO BE SATISFIED. MCD

  5. Chris Jansen, on January 30th, 2011 at 03:34 Said:

    Lets not forget to live this life and look after this universe and its living beings

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