For the past six weeks I have been going to a class every Tuesday night at Beeson Divinity School’s Lay Academy of Theology. The title of the class was Learning to Pray from the Masters taught by Dr. Lyle Dorsett.
One evening we looked at quote by Evelyn Underhill. She was an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist who was known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism.
Three deep cravings of the self, three great expressions of man’s restlessness, which only mystic truth can fully satisfy. The first is the craving which makes him a pilgrim and a wanderer. It is the longing to go out from his normal world in search of a lost home, a “better country”, an Eldorado, a Sarras, a Heavenly Syon. The next is the craving of heart for heart, of the Soul for its perfect mate, which makes him a lover. The third is the craving for inward purity and perfection, which makes him an ascetic, and in the last resort a saint.
Above Evelyn explains that there are three great longings of the human soul:
1. A longing for a place to belong
2. A longing for the perfect mate
3. A longing to be clean
These cravings lead people to look for a better place to live or even a new group of people to hang out with. They motivate many women to watch chick flicks and to dream about their knight in shining armor. They provoke individuals to make sure that their good deeds far outweigh their bad ones.
That “mystic truth” Evelyn describes is ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will only know true satisfaction and contentment when we know Him intimately.
Psalm 107:9 For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
-This world is not our home. Our home is the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). Only in Jesus do we find true acceptance and membership in His family.
-That perfect mate you long to find will fail you at times. Only in Christ do we find One who loves us unconditionally (Romans 8:35).
-You cannot clean yourself. The blood of Christ is the only way to make you clean inside (Is. 64:6,1 John 1:7).
The reason I’m bringing a light to this need is because I have tried to fulfill the longings of my soul with things that only caused me great pain and I have realized that there is no substitute for Christ. Whether it was trying to make more money, measuring my significance in who I dated, or being the best at competitive sports… I put all my stock in these things at one point in time. When I was looking to these things or people for satisfaction instead of Christ, I was consumed with a constant pursuit of them because I had to obtain something more in order to finally be content. It’s a fruitless endeavor because you will never attain satisfaction apart from Christ.
What do you long for and in who/what are you seeking to fulfill that craving? What do you always find yourself thinking about? Are you living for the temporal or for the eternal? Are you living for yourself or are you living for God?
I want to point you to the all-satisfying Christ, for he is the bread of life.
John 6:48-51 “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
John 15:5,9-11 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that MY JOY may be in YOU and that your joy may be COMPLETE.
