"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing." (C S Lewis - Mere Christianity)
“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C S Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
I am caught up by the two quotes you have just read by C S Lewis. This man has captured the interest and the delight of many a reader. I was especially ensnared with his Chronicles of Narnia series. (What child isn't?) Now that those stories are being brought to life on the big-screen, they are even more popular.
But those stories are probably the most delightful because... they are for children. When one starts to dig into some of the "adult level" reading material Lewis has delivered, it can become heavy. Occasionally, I have just laid some of his books down, because I could not get into them. The man certainly had a mind that dug deeply.
But for today, I wanted to comment on these two quotes simply because they resonated in me and touched a nerve... a spiritual nerve.
Many of us, I am sure have felt the "desire" that Lewis speaks of in the first quote from Mere Christianity. I call it a longing. Because every single human being that has existed and ever will exist on this earth is made in the image of God, there is more to us than just this "earthsuit" that we walk around in. Because there is a SOUL within, that cries out for... longs for its ultimate abiding place, it is concluding to say, we can not be satisfied while we stay here.
I can remember as a child, living in a manse next to the church where my father was the pastor. Out in the front yard which connected to the church parking lot, (gravel, sand and dirt) there stood a large shady tree. After rainy days, my sister and I would go out and play in the wet mix, underneath that tree, making "mud pies." We used sticks and stones and flowers to decorate them. Then I remember somehow turning my trike into some sort of imaginary cart to sell those mud pies. It was all good fun. :-)
We are no longer children, and life has become more complicated, more controlled, more demanding. We long for those days where we captured a simple joy making those mud pies. We were innocent to the ways of the world. We were protected by the "invisible fences" surrounding us that our parents had erected to keep us secure. We went to school, learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. We learned about Jesus our Savior, and believed that He was our Savior. We sang Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E, and believed it all in our childlike faith, having no reason to doubt.
Now...the playtimes of our adult lives that would parallel those childhood "mud pie moments" no longer satisfy. The ingredients and materials that today's adults would use to reinvent those delightful playtimes no longer give lasting joy. They are empty, because life is no longer simple. Our childhood days are long past, and our adult minds tell us that there is something missing, an element that keeps us searching for that long lost innocent satisfaction and joy.
This...is the longing of a soul to have an intimate relationship with its Creator. This...is what our true existence is about, what we were created for, to experience and enjoy the delightful presence of the One who desires for us to know Him.
For those of us who have been to the seaside, we understand the vast difference communicated in the quote of Lewis. The dirty, murky mud can not even compare to the vast sparkling white sands of the beaches. The amazing view of the seemingly endless waters stretching all the way to the horizon before us, the mesmerizing ebb and flow of the tide, the crashing of the waves, the salty taste of the water....falls into a class of its own when compared to the mud puddles of our own backyard....or a slum, whatever the case may be.
We search for what we long for. Where we search will determine the final resting place of our longing for joy.
Are you searching for those long-lost moments in your life where you are delighted simply by the innocent resting and fulfillment of pure joy that meets a desire you feel in your life... in your soul? Do you feel like you are sitting in the mud, when you should be experiencing the beauty and splendor of a "holiday by the sea?"
There is a God-given desire in every one of us to know the ONE who can fill up that need and impart eternal joy, peace, delight, and rest. Decide to get out of your back yard where you have settled for the mud. Make a commitment and take the time to travel in your heart's journey to the seaside and experience what God is offering to you.
Do not let yourself become "too easily pleased."
Our souls may not be in their ultimate resting place where joy will always be the state of our existence in the presence of our Lord, but there is offered to us, while we are still here on this earth, the moments of a "holiday" when we can experience a foretaste of what's coming.
Do Not Settle For Less! There is more to this life than what this world offers.
Our Savior desires with all His heart for us to taste and see that what HE offers is a wonderful gift. He will meet the desires and longings of your soul, because He intimately loves you.
Blessings,
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