Writers are always trying to give their readers a satisfying ending to the story. When the last page is read and the book is closed, we want readers to feel they’ve taken a journey and they’re pretty happy they did. They may want more, they may want to go back and re-play some of the scenes in their minds, but they’re glad they spent the time enjoying that particular story– their longings were satisfied.
Television and movie writers know the same truths: they foreshadow future events, they entice the viewer with tiny promises of the resolution so desired. Mysteries are solved, bad guys are apprehended and in romances, well, of course couples get together and are happy –forever. Really?
The truth I’ve been thinking about the past few days revolves around a larger theme. That truth is, brace yourselves, we never fully satisfy the deep longing in our hearts. That may sound like bad news, but really it isn’t. It’s just a fact. We may satisfy hunger for food, or our desire to have meaningful relationships. We pursue and enjoy any number of hobbies and activities, but deep down we still long for…something. We can’t actually name it.
C.S. Lewis spoke of that longing that is never fulfilled. He said, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. 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. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” He goes on later to say that we’re on the “wrong side of the door” and the healing of that old ache will take place only when we move to the other side where we’ll find the source of pure joy.
Listen to the lyrics of love songs so full of desire, read the endings of all the love stories. They’ll satisfy for a while, but if we’re honest, that old ache of longing will arise again. We’re still on the wrong side of the door where our deepest longings remain unfulfilled. The whole earth groans, Romans tells us, as if in childbirth. But there’s more than our short lives here on earth. I don’t know what the other side of the door will look like and I’m not expecting streets paved with gold, but I do anticipate a reunion with the Creator of all and a final resolution to the longing in my heart.
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Jan, every single one of your blogs postings of late have just hit me right between the eyes. I can’t comment on all of them (usually because I can’t remember my password for my website!) but I think I can manage this one. What you’ve said is so true. As a writer who at least dabbles in romance, I’ve had to consider this fact seriously. No man–or woman, no matter how wonderful, can ever satisfy that deepest need of our human hearts. Really. No matter how good the relationship may be. But we can make the journey for each other a little easier, I hope, by our living out of the love of God. And realizing that the lack of complete satisfaction is because “we’re not home, yet.”
I just found your comment, Dawn. It was interspersed with about 400 others, most of them relating to “making some quick money on the web.” Anyway, when the time get tough, it’s good to remember that our primary need is the Lord. When I notice that black cloud over my head it’s often paired with little time in the Word, not much prayer and filling my time with less than the best. Yet, we need each other. Our friendships offer us a taste of the love and acceptance and peace we look forward to in eternity. Thanks for being my friend.