One of the most interesting pieces of theistic faith is simply its answer to the heart’s desire for more.
Many who explore faith actually do so quite logically. It isn’t blind, but rather the natural step that is driven by a hunger. What do you do when you achieve the job you wanted? Are you now complete? How about when you finish the degree you thought you wanted, or marry the person of your dreams, or lose the weight you thought would make you look good? Everyone begins by answering “yes” until they realize they are not yet whole or that the object of their affection lacks the ability to satisfy this mysterious hunger that still resides. Maybe it’s better described as unsettled, or a searching.
Malcom Muggeridge, the famous British journalist, says it well:
“It is difficult to resist the conclusion that 20th century man has abolished himself. Tired of the struggle to be himself he has created boredom out of his own influence and vulnerability out of his own strength. He himself blows the trumpet that brings the walls of his own cities crashing down until at last having educating himself into imbecility, having drugged and polluted himself into stupefaction he keels over a weary, battered, old brontosaurus and becomes extinct.”
Ancient King Solomon equally says it well:
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
It’s not that another degree, marriage, or raise doesn’t bring momentary happiness — absolutely they do. Yet it isn’t just a quick pleasure that we desire; it’s to feel complete. Most who try and succeed in their earthly endeavors begin to realize that along with their success is this ever-growing awareness that it isn’t fully working. Then, as Muggeridge states, many begin to drown this realization with sedatives. It’s almost as if they state, “If I cannot feel complete I choose to not feel at all.”
What if there is more?
Jesus Christ takes this to another level. It’s not a story of man trying to create purpose. It’s perfect purpose coming to man.