THE LONGING HEART

Ron Gray, Interim Site Lead Pastor

“Whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst again. Indeed, the water I give will become in that person a fresh, bubbling spring, giving them eternal life.”  — Jesus, John 4:14 

I believe that if we are self-aware and honest, we have to admit that there is a deep loneliness that crouches at the door of our heart. Before you diagnose me as being depressed or discouraged, and before you accuse me of being a pessimistic glass half empty kind of guy, please hear me out.  

Isn’t much of our searching and our striving in life simply an attempt to find fulfillment, joy, peace, companionship, and a sense of satisfaction? Aren’t we really just searching for a home for our heart? It’s not that the things we search for and work for are intrinsically bad. They are not. It's just that they are insufficient to truly fill our longings. We can find the things I mentioned above, but they are very fragile trophies that we only hold briefly. Then they are gone. It matters not if the time they spend in our hand is a moment or a decade. When they are lost, the feeling of deep loneliness and longing returns. We have the choice then to either give in to the loneliness or begin yet again to hold it at bay through our efforts. Our heart is insatiable in its appetite to be filled. 

About 400 years ago Blaise Pascal wrote: 
“What else does this craving and this helplessness proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” — Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425)

O yes, the God shaped hole that exists in every human heart. The hole can only be filled by God himself. It is in him and him alone that we find eternal and true joy, fulfillment, peace, and companionship. 

What does your heart long for? What are you hoping will ultimately bring your heart home? God is the true home for your heart. It is in Jesus that we truly find what our heart longs for. To all people with longing hearts Jesus said,“Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (John 7:37-38)

So, it turns out that this is not a discouraging message after all. Quite the opposite. It is the promise that in Jesus our hearts can truly find what they are longing for.