Longings

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13-16 NIV)

Are you weary of the struggles of daily life? Are you tired of the pain, sorrow, and loss that seem to cast a constant shadow upon the world? Are you emotionally drained by the brokenness that surrounds you or that you experience within yourself? Deep down, do you long for something far better than what life has offered you thus far?

If so, then the 11th Chapter of Hebrews is for you. The writer spends the entire chapter extolling the faith of those well known and others who lived in obscurity, who found this earthly life difficult and challenging, but held onto their faith through a longing for a long-promised country that does not exist in this earthly realm. 

In our rush to admire the saints of old, we tend to forget or fail to recognize how hard their lives were. As the chapter summarizes, they faced many challenges, including persecution and torture, depravation, loneliness, and uncertainty, as well as hope deferred. What they had been promised, they never experienced in this life.  

In our immediate gratification world, we are not accustomed to waiting long for what we want. So the temptation is to satisfy our deepest longings with things much more temporal. Our deepest longings are those for which we were created. They come from the spiritual realm and our ability to grasp them is elusive in this fallen world. But they are meant to, over our lifetimes, to draw us closer to the One who can ultimately satisfy them.  Rather than grow accustomed to what we experience in the here and now, these longings seek to make us dissatisfied and restless for something far greater and better.

The danger to us, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, is that we are far too easily pleased with that with which we are familiar, rather than something promised which we have never experienced. Like the one who longs to be loved settling for mere attention when a true lover waits in the wings. Or like the one who settles for mere knowledge when wisdom beckons. Tamping down our longings in favor of gratification in the moment will always prove unsatisfactory in the long run.

What the Hebrew writer is seeking to convey is, like the saints of old, we should cultivate rather than ignore the deep longings we have. We should not settle for what this world offers, but rather seek that which is far superior—a better country of which we as believers are already citizens.  

Today, think about your deepest longings, those that make your heart ache for something more than you have ever truly experienced.  These are the things which only God can satisfy. Let these longings move you to pursue the One who can ultimately fulfill them.  Don’t settle for less. More is far better in the long run.

© Jim Musser 2017