Unfulfilled Desire

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Everyone needs.  No one lives without desire.  The deepest needs and desires feel illusive at best, impossible to fulfill at worst.  C.S. Lewis explains that heart desires which cannot be met on earth must have their fulfillment in another world—in God’s perfect world.  To experience the perfect world of God, we must embrace the unfulfilled longings we have in this world. 

Some think they can “have their cake and eat it too;” they want the luxuries of this life and the next.  Yet they fail to realize the deceptiveness of riches in the here and now; how they pail in comparison to our eternal destination.  Christ said in heaven, there is no rust or theft.  In other words, what we receive in heaven cannot be lost.  Anything, and everything, that can be lost leads us away from the eternal good, not towards it.

Others think they must embrace the way of pointless pain, as if pain for its own sake makes us more like God.  But pain may lead us to hate God, as pleasure may cause us to ignore him.  And pain could lead people to pray for His mercy, while pleasure leads them to praise Him for His glory.

The Lord said those who seek to gain their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for Him and His kingdom will gain their lives, as well as the Lord.  The life they lose is what they most desire, what they feel like they can’t and won’t live without.  Yet how will they know they can’t live without it until they choose to indeed die?  How can they know God as their only fulfillment until God is the only fulfillment they have?

Not that God’s gifts must be rejected, for He loves us through these as well.  Those who know the deepest unfulfilled desire know that there must be another world. 

“Who have I in heaven but you; there is nothing on earth I desire besides you.”