There are a lot of things that trigger mine. Recently, the power ball reached up to something way over $600M, and I saw much evidence of the "if only". (Personally, I think $600M would be way too much to win but it somehow got me thinking along the subject of "how much would be the right amount?")
Maybe you live somewhere where the real estate market is much more reasonable than where I live, but HGTV sure gets my "if only" going. Forget granite countertops and gleaming hardwood floors, how about something, anything that I can afford to start building equity?
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| Drool... |
If you're single, you can probably best relate to my biggest "if only" - the longing to have someone to share life with, and many of the other "benefits" that are attached to that. When I was younger, I used to tell myself it was only a matter of time until I found someone. After all, most people get married, right? As time has moved on, though, I've realized two things: 1) the pool of eligible men is shrinking up, plus I'm just really picky about who I would be willing to spend the rest of my life with, so it's probably not happening. And 2) Marriage and relationships are not a magic bullet. I know some people who have really, really good marriages. And they do not solve all that ails the heart.
Well that's depressing.
Except...
The best is yet to come.
As CS Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity (emphasis mine):
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 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.I've started to find that the moments where I am drawn to the fact that I feel like I'm missing out are actually a gift. Yes, all is not as it is meant to be. But in understanding that, I am pointed to a deeper reality --- that all WILL eventually be as it is meant to be. That desire or that longing is a reminder of the hope that I have in Christ.
I am a strong believer that we choose where we put our focus and our thoughts. And we can choose to wallow in the losses and the disappointments in our lives, or we can choose to ruminate on the reality of all the promises of Christ in the gospel. We have right now an imperfect experience of our relationship with God, but there is a day coming when we will experience that relationship perfectly. And all our earthly longings ultimate point to things that will be fulfilled when we realize that relationship in its truest sense.
So the next time you find yourself longing for something, remind yourself of that deep truth of the gospel:
The best is yet to come.
