He that willingly submits to the cross, to him its whole burden is changed into a sweet assurance of divine comfort. And the more the flesh is broken down by the cross, the more the spirit is strengthened by inward grace. It is not in man by nature to bear the cross, to love the cross, to deny self, to bring the body into subjection, and willingly to endure suffering. If thou look to thyself, thou canst accomplish nothing of all this. But if thou trust in the Lord, strength shall be given thee from heaven, and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thy rule. Set thyself, therefore, to bear manfully the cross of thy Lord, who out of love was crucified for thee.
~Thomas a’Kempis
Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
~ David, in Psalm 37
Oh beloved, it is true. There is within us a hunger so deep as to keep us ravenous. It does not matter how much we put into it. Nothing is ever enough. We could have the entire universe as our possession and all of the pleasures it contains – and still we would end or dry and nervous and bored.
We try though. And the escapades of our life look more like the demolition derbies that were so popular in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s… Lots of motion and noise and fun. But all of it ending in nothing moving properly – and everything in the arena needing repair.
In trying to bring delight to our souls we miss the point entirely. We keep thinking that some combination of something is going to finally fill the hole. But really, all we do in our pursuit is hurt ourselves and others. Everything we throw at the problem actually leaves us feeling more empty and dry than when we began.
We know deep down inside, that things will never get better if we keep doing what we have been doing. We will end up in a place where there is no water. We will ache for eternity just to get a drop of water for our parched tongues in the flames.
And so, somewhere by His Grace, we look to Him. At first, it is just to see if He can help dull the pain and assist our efforts at filling ourselves up. We know that nothing else has worked, and so we seem to think that if we upgrade our equipment, the hole will be filled properly.
But we find, that not even the assistance of G_d, is enough to fill the hole within us. The blessings He brings are wonderful, but they are not enough. The people He brings into our lives are beautiful, but they are not enough. Not even the sense of our future destination (now seen rightly as Heaven) is enough.
Nothing is enough. No place is enough.
Can we see it? This is the best indicator of our design – and the Designer(S) – Who put our lives in motion. The soul of a man is very much like the soul of his Designer(S). They have an infinite capacity. And so, there is only One who can fill the space: The Triune G_d.
At first, we are incredulous. But then we begin to explore the idea He presents in His Word. G_d lives in delight. He has been in deep communion within His Triune Self forever and is simply bursting with an infinite flow of His goodness and mercy and grace and truth and Love. There is no limit to all of this; all of who He is, is the super-saturating, superstructure of all creation.
Then, we begin to grasp this from a “truth on the page” kind of perspective. This is good, but we have to go a little deeper. And when we do, we finally begin to see a glimmer of hope that our quest is about to end (or is it begin?). We realize that we were trying to bring delight to ourselves and that this is not the way His economy works.
We begin to see that we only receive when we look away from ourselves and put our attention onto something else. Then we see it! Actually, we see Him. And. We. Are. Undone.
Slain.
Beauty beyond the ability for an army of Shakespeares to put into words comes into view. The verdant green rainbow of His interface with existence splatters and sprays and brings Light to everything else. Gargantuan tides of eternal goodness pour out from the throne.
And this is only the beginning.
We can only see an iotic sliver at the moment. Any more would blast us apart. We see His Heart… At least that part which we can handle without being torn to shreds by Light and Love and Strength and Hope and Peace and Who He Is. We have found it.
He is enough. He is the Desire of my (and your) heart.
So, beloved, are you dry? Are you testing the strange fires and brews this world offers and find yourself losing ground. You will never find what you are looking for. There is not enough pleasure in the universe to fill even one soul of a man. You are a being designed with an infinitely hungry soul, and only One can fill this need. He(They) are showing you your purpose in your hunger.
Tonight is your night. Time to be filled with Him. Only He is enough.
If you have Christ, you will have comfort, joy, peace and liberty; and when the trouble comes, you will find shelter and deliverance by coming near to Him.
~ Charles Spurgeon
