Fulfilling the Unmet Need

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” 
― C.S. Lewis

Every human need has a corresponding thing or experience to fulfill that need.  We get hungry, food exists to satisfy us.  We're thirsty, and water and drink is there to quench it.  Our bodies and minds feel tired, and sleep solves the problem. We feel cold, and clothing warms us.  But what about that deep yearning to be loved, forgiven, and to know our purpose in life?  Family and friends, education, even falling in love and marriage can attempt to fill that void, but the yearning never stops.  There's the yearning to know that all the evil and wrongs that we see around us will be made right somehow, that the pain we experience and see in others can be healed.  What amount of human justice and activism can solve all of that?

Why would this deep yearning exist if there was nothing to satisfy it?  The most popular solution is to just ignore the yearning.  Pretend it doesn't mean anything, or throw that yearning a few scraps of human effort to feel good about yourself that you're making the world a better place.  There are plenty of people walking the earth who have convinced themselves that their yearning is a waste of time to dwell on, or that it's nothing more than boredom that's crying out for something to do.  That's why entertainment and distractions have such a strong hold on us, they drown out that inner cry to be fulfilled.

Mr. Lewis said it so well, we were made for another world.  We were created to be fulfilled, filled and overflowing with a life force that comes from outside our physical existence.  And not just to feel good about ourselves but to be used to start healing and fighting evil.  To reveal the power and goodness of heaven to all the world through the new creation that we can become.

Look at your typical crowd in any given shopping mall.  Everyone has that yearning, everyone has that void. But because the world has become so shiny and slick and fancy, loud and artificial. their yearnings becomes drowned out.  They are there in each heart, ignored, but there.

So what is going on with those who say they have finally found the answer to their yearning are too busy or embarrassed to share it, and they fall for the lie that no one really wants it.  If what the rest of the world has found to stuff into their empty hearts is really satisfying them, then evil would have no room to continue it's destruction of lives, and the world would become a wonderful place.  Any evidence of that going on?

This morning I loved the message of John 7:38, that we'll be more than satisfied, we'll be used to pour God's Spirit and power out to everyone else around us.  If you've really found the answer, found God and found His new life, nothing can hold you back.  Like a tidal wave or a tsunami.  A life that's just better, more in order, more spiritual is not even close to what Jesus was saying.  Your yearning is not yet satisfied.  Keep looking.

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”