Remember the old Coca-Cola commercials when someone would take a sip of an ice-cold Coke then loudly sigh with contentment? The intended point was to demonstrate that drinking Coca-Cola offers great satisfaction. While I am a fan of a good ole' fashioned bottled coke, I am well aware that it does not satisfy or make me content. If anything, it just tastes good and brings on the calories.
Evelyn Underhill once explained that there are three great longings of the human soul:
1. A longing for a place to belong
2. A longing to be loved
3. A longing to be clean
These cravings lead people to join everything from sports teams to churches. They motivate many women to watch chick flicks and to dream about their wedding and their knight in shining armor. They incite individuals to give alms, make pilgrimages to holy places, to confess their sins, and to do good deeds.
Ultimately, what we long for is Christ, and we will only know satisfaction and contentment when we know Him.
Only in Him do we find true acceptance and membership in His family.
Only in Him do we find One who loves us unconditionally.
Only in Him do we find forgiveness of sins.
He satisfies our hunger. He fulfills our longing.
"For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things" (Ps. 107:9).
Are you seeking your satisfaction in Him? Whether you are longing for a significant other, a job, more money, etc., it won't bring you joy or contentment. It is a poor substitute for Christ. Furthermore, if you are looking to things or people instead of Christ, you will be consumed with your pursuit of them because you will always have to obtain something more in order to finally be content. It's a fruitless endeavor because you will never attain satisfaction apart from Christ.
What do you spend your time thinking about? What directs your life? What do you long for and in who/what are you seeking to fulfill that craving? Are you living for the temporal or for the eternal? Who is your life centered on - God or yourself?
"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand." Only Christ is a solid Rock, a sure foundation. Take a lesson from the foolish man and build your life on Christ. Seek Him instead of things or people. He is what you need.
Even as a believer who is trying to be God-centered, it is so easy to be distracted and to satiate ourselves with a diet that is sub-par. I've traveled to many impoverished areas in Asia and have seen people who eat loads of rice but are malnourished. While their stomachs do not growl, they fill themselves with food that does not benefit them. Food that does not sustain them. In his sermon "The Weight of Glory," C. S. Lewis states, "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased." Are you filling yourself with that which nourishes, or are you "far too easily pleased" with a fare that lacks nutritional value for your soul?
It is also so easy to become consumed with looking to the future, longing for so many things to happen, that you miss out on where God has you right now. In a letter to his wife, Jim Elliot penned the words, "Let not our longing slay the appetite for our living." God has you where you are right now for a reason.
Be present. Be seeking Christ. Be content with where He has placed you and with what He has given you. Long and live for Christ.
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