06 Jul On the Bible and Our Longings

Do you ever wonder why humans long for things?

We long for all kinds of things:

• we long for beauty
• we long for music
• we long for story
• we long for food
• we long for love and intimacy

Have you ever asked yourself seriously, why do I long for anything at all? Why is that?

After all, if behavior drives culture, and longings drive our behavior, then what we long for—and why we long for it—are crucial things to understand.

Why do we long for things?

One potential answer is given by secular materialism: the universe and matter is all there is, so what we feel is really, ultimately, meaningless.

Another potential answer is given through atheistic evolutionary theory: that somehow, whatever longing we feel was originally some kind of adaptation that helped our species survive.

But is that what you feel when you see some vast vista? Or think when you see an incredible rainbow? Or feel something inside a piece of music?

Do you think—anywhere in your first, say, ten responses to that thing—I am only feeling this because it helps me survive? or, what I am feeling is ultimately meaningless?

No, because the Christian faith has a better answer.

To our longings, it says:

• longings are first and foremost, gifts: they help us enjoy life
• longings are second of all, pointers: they point us to a God who gives freely and creates beautifully
• longings are third of all, hints: hints of what we were made for, made to do, and what we will be re-made to in the world that is to come, as John the writer tells us in Revelation.

We will all believe they are something—I believe the Bible has a better, more satisfying, and ultimately truer answer.

I hope to speak to much of this on Sunday as we take a look at Revelation 21, and the staggering implications it has, for well, everything about our lives as we know them.

I’ll see you then.

Morgan