Tag Archives: unfulfilled longings

Daily Riches: The Homing Device of a Hungry Heart (Gregory Boyd)

Posted on by under Awareness, Being the Beloved, Desolation's Gift, Emotions and Spirituality, Suffering and Grace, The Love of God, thirsting and longing for God, Wholeness and Brokenness

“Every human being with normal mental and emotional faculties longs for more …If only this, that, or some other thing were different, we say to ourselves, then we’d feel complete and happy. …Acquiring the better job, the bigger house, the new spouse, or world fame we longed for may provide a temporary sense of happiness and completeness, but it never lasts. Sooner or later, the hunger returns. [We have] …a vague and bittersweet nostalgia and/or longing for a distant country, but one that cannot be found on earth. …a quasi-mystical sense that we (and our present world) are incomplete, combined with an unattainable yearning for whatever it is that would complete it. …this longing is not puzzling from a biblical perspective, for Scripture teaches us that humans and the entire creation are fallen and estranged from God. Lewis saw [this] as reflective of our ‘pilgrim status.’ It indicates that we are not where we were meant to be, where we are destined to be; we are not home.

Our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off is . . . the truest index of our real situation. C. S. Lewis

“With Lewis, Christians have always identified this [uneasiness or longing] that resides in the human heart as a yearning for God. …as a sort of homing device placed in us by our Creator to lead us into a passionate relationship with him. …It’s my conviction that we are made to perpetually share in a life in which we are perfectly and unconditionally loved, in which we experientially know we could not mater more to God than we already do, and in which we feel absolutely secure in his love and worth, for we know that nothing – including the loss of our biological life – could cause us to lose this life.” Gregory Boyd  [my emphasis]

“I came that they may have life … abundantly.”
John 10:10

 Moving From Head to Heart

  • Do you feel like a “pilgrim” on this earth? Is there a sense of unfulfilled longing deep within you?
  • Can you live with that, waiting upon God, or do you insist on attempting to fill it with things-other-than-God?
  • Reread the last (italicized) sentence. This is what God wants for you. Have you begun to enter into it?

Abba, I will hope in you.

For More: Benefit of the Doubt by Gregory Boyd

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow and share my blog. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: Putting Painful Longings in Perspective (Larry Crabb and Frederick Buechner) *

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Emotions and Spirituality, Spiritual Formation, Suffering and Grace, Uncategorized

“First, our desires … are related not only to our fallenness but also, and more profoundly, to our humanness. In other words, it’s okay to desire. Second, when we look carefully at what we deeply desire, we come to realize that what we want is simply not available, not until Heaven. …Both errors in responding to our longings–hiding them in a flurry of Christian activity and focusing on them to find satisfaction–deny the simple truth that we legitimately want what we cannot have in this world. We were designed to live in a perfect world uncorrupted by the weeds of disharmony and distance. Until we take up residence in that world, however, we will hurt. It is, therefore, not only okay to desire, it is also okay to hurt.”  Larry Crabb

“… to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worse–is by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed.” Frederick Buechner

“Scorn has broken my heart
    and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
    for comforters, but I found none.
They put gall in my food
    and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”
Psalm 69:19-21 

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Are Christians allowed to have emotions like loneliness, sadness, and disappointment? Do you allow yourself to feel these kinds of emotions?
  • Do you try to bury your emotions “in a flurry of Christian activity?”
  • Do you “steel yourself” against feeling “the harshness of reality” by sheer force of the will?
  • Imagine the loneliness, disappointment and heartbreak that filled the life of Jesus. He didn’t let these emotions rule him, but he also didn’t deny or bury them. He offered them to his Father and “let something be done for him” that was “more wonderful” than being strong. He experienced life from above while in this world corrupted “by the weeds of disharmony.” Can you let God do that for you?

Abba, help me learn to embrace my emotions – even the most painful ones. Help me not to fear them, but to allow you to work in me through them. Help me to discover something more wonderful than being strong. Help me to be transformed.

__________

For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

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Thanks for your interest in Daily Riches! –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Unfulfilled Longings (Larry Crabb, John Climacus, Teresa of Avila) *

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Humility, thirsting and longing for God

“Nothing is more humbling than the recognition of (1) a deep thirst that makes us entirely dependent on someone else for satisfaction and (2) a depth of corruption that stains everything we do–even our efforts to reform–with selfishness. To realistically face what is true within us puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Larry Crabb

“Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast and I turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No mater how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.” John Climacus

“We do not know what is good for us, what we should ask for on any given day, at any given moment. Whether we are fervent or disquieted, at peace or thrown about by temptation, caught up in prayer or speechless, matters not at all. What matters is … however I find myself as darkness comes, that I should without ceasing hope in you and fear not. For if I have you, God, I will want for nothing. You alone suffice.” Teresa of Avila

“O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Have you concluded that you are “entirely dependent upon someone else [God] for satisfaction?”  Are you aware of “a depth of corruption in you that stains everything you do … with selfishness?”
  • Are you able to “sit with” the longings that accompany these admissions and then bring them to God as the Psalmist does?
  • Facing these truths “puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Are you willing to go with God to this place of pain? What would be the point?

Abba, like the psalmist, help me to honestly admit my longings to myself and to you, and may I find satisfaction in you alone, regardless of what happens with my longings.

__________

For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

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Thanks for reading!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Putting Painful Longings in Perspective (Larry Crabb and Frederick Buechner)

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Emotions and Spirituality, Suffering and Grace

“First, our desires … are related not only to our fallenness but also, and more profoundly, to our humanness. In other words, it’s okay to desire. Second, when we look carefully at what we deeply desire, we come to realize that what we want is simply not available, not until Heaven. …Both errors in responding to our longings–hiding them in a flurry of Christian activity and focusing on them to find satisfaction–deny the simple truth that we legitimately want what we cannot have in this world. We were designed to live in a perfect world uncorrupted by the weeds of disharmony and distance. Until we take up residence in that world, however, we will hurt. It is, therefore, not only okay to desire, it is also okay to hurt.”  Larry Crabb

“… to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worse–is by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed.” Frederick Buechner

“Scorn has broken my heart
    and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
    for comforters, but I found none.
They put gall in my food
    and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”
Psalm 69:19-21 

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Are Christians allowed to have emotions like loneliness, sadness, and disappointment? Do you allow yourself to feel these kinds of emotions?
  • Do you try to bury your emotions “in a flurry of Christian activity?”
  • Do you “steel yourself” against feeling “the harshness of reality” by sheer force of the will?
  • Imagine the loneliness, disappointment and heartbreak that filled the life of Jesus. He didn’t let these emotions rule him, but he also didn’t deny or bury them. He offered them to his Father and “let something be done for him” that was “more wonderful” than being strong. He experienced life from above while in this world corrupted “by the weeds of disharmony.” Can you let God do that for you?

Abba, this isn’t heaven, but in my pain I can still experience it.

__________

For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

_________________________________________________

Thanks for your interest in Daily Riches! –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Longing and Satisfaction (Larry Crabb and John Climacus)

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Ego Issues, Humility

“Nothing is more humbling than the recognition of (1) a deep thirst that makes us entirely dependent on someone else for satisfaction and (2) a depth of corruption that stains everything we do–even our efforts to reform–with selfishness. To realistically face what is true within us puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Larry Crabb

“Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast and I turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No mater how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.” John Climacus

“O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in your sanctuary
and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise you! …
You satisfy me more than the richest feast.”
Psalm 63:1-5a

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Have you concluded that you are “entirely dependent upon someone else [God] for satisfaction?”  Have you become aware of “a depth of corruption in you that stains everything you do … with selfishness?”
  • Are you able to “sit with” the longings that accompany these admissions and then bring them to God as the Psalmist does?
  • Crabb says facing these truths “puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Are you willing to go with God to this place of pain? What would be the point?

Abba, like the psalmist, help me to honestly admit my longings to myself and to you, and may I find satisfaction in you alone, regardless of what happens with my longings.

__________

For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

_________________________________________________

The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)