Made for Eternity

I've been looking through Jennifer's blog archives because her voice is a voice that I resonate with a lot these past few weeks and I'm learning about her journey and how God has found her.  I'm learning about how God restored her to Himself.  I'm learning about the peaceful rhythm she has found as she walked intimately with her Beloved.  A walk so inspiring and captivating.  A walk that reminds me of my own walk many years ago.

But believing that one thing is everything, that the pursuit of these desires is the act of pursuing You makes an idol out of our desires. Our pursuit of what we think we want becomes more important to us than You. (May 17, 2011)

It’s true.  I have turned most of my desires into my idols.  Even the desire to be a reliable youth minister, a creative writer, a dear friend or finding true love. Even the desire to be financially successful, professionally admirable and competently consistent.  I realized how subliminally my desires have replaced the desire to make God the most important pursuit of my life.  It is easy to lose my grip on the most valuable treasure I have.  The world is so attractive.  The world is so alluring.  Those that do not follow the ways of the world end up becoming wallflowers, outcasts, hermits, friendless and forgotten.  I teeter between these two worlds—the secular and the divine—every single minute.  The choice to center on God becomes such a struggle when I focus on what I’ll be missing out on if I choose Him.  It’s so easy to feel that choosing God becomes the lesser choice when I’m filled “with the world” and all it’s longings.  

But God is merciful enough to show me again that the reason for much of my frustration and struggle is because my desire to find belongingness in this world cannot deeply be satisfied by this world unless I find belongingness in Him.  

What we idolize in the world, though initially becomes such an aspiring pursuit, always frustrates our longing for lasting fulfillment, love and joy because these idols are not made from an eternal mold.  It’s satisfaction cannot sustain our longings for the long haul.

I’m encouraged by the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:18)

His words have somehow always explained to me that the reason why I am easily discontented is because pursuing things of this world, the things that are seen, only have temporary value.  My longings are too deep and wide to fulfill only in a temporary way.

We all want things to last forever.  The laughter among friends.  The summer nights at the soccer field. The high from a worship gathering. The belongingness in a cozy night cap.  These good times experienced in the world ignite in us a longing for what is lasting and we are saddened when it doesn’t. But I suppose this is what points us to the truth.  These longings triggered by these good times are there because we are meant to experience all these things in a lasting way.  

But what can make it last is not our own attempts to increase the frequency of good times spent but rather deepen and sustain our habits that lead us to pursuing what is unseen—God—for only He can make things last forever.  He is the eternal one.  

Any experience that doesn’t have God in them will always be fleeting and will always bring us to a certain melancholy.

This morning I long for the truth of eternity to rest in my heart.  That I am made for eternal things. That my life has been paid for because He wants to place His heart in me.