When is the last time you really wanted something? When have you pursued something just beyond your reach? What do you long for?
David writes in the Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.” He goes on to describe darkness in his soul. Despite this darkness, despite the seeming silence of his God, David holds on to his longing and waits for God. He longs for relief from his condition and yet keeps his eyes fixed on the hope that this darkness will lift and he will once again sing praises.
We live in a culture that works against the idea of longing. We are all about instant gratification and quick fixes. We are full of food, noise, entertainment, and stimuli. We have stuffed ourselves so full we have drowned out space for longing. We are content with the junk, but I fear we are missing out on the really good stuff.
Longing leads us to a deep intimacy. It is pursuing something beyond us – something more than what we currently have. To long for God is a pursuit of close proximity. Many of us are afraid of intimacy. We fear the unknown. We fear what others may see in us. We fear being disappointed. In our trepidation, we keep ourselves full. We consume junk to avoid the pains of hunger.
Longing requires us to quiet our environment enough to hear the groans of our soul. It is sitting in sacred silence and opening our hearts. It is allowing ourselves to feel the hunger pangs; to feel a deep thirst. Longing does not look for the quick fix to satisfy our hunger and thirst, but instead listens to the quiet yearnings and waits for the Source to fill it up.
Some form of meditation is found in every religion. Christian tradition has the mystics such as the Desert Fathers of the 400’s and the medieval mystics such as St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, and Meister Eckert. The mystics longed for powerful union with God. They pursued contemplative practices of prayer and sacred readings in pursuit of God, but also to increase their self-awareness. They were interested in identifying the self-imposed obstacles that kept them from a more perfect unity with God. They sought to know what in themselves needed to die in order that they may live in Christ. This form of prayer took discipline and time.
I fear in our fast-paced society we lack the patience to meditate on God as well as have thorough self-examinations of our conscience. Our quick fix mentality has cheapened our prayers and silenced our longing – “Three easy steps to the prayer life you have always wanted.” If only it were that easy.
Longing commits to the on-going pursuit of death to self in order to reach union with God. When I lived in Viet Nam, there were two kinds of coffee. One was instant Nescafe and the other was the French press. Nescafe was a quick fix, but its satisfaction was limited to squelching a caffeine headache. But the French press – it was slow to come to fruition. I would stare at the glass wanting it to hurry up knowing all along there was no speeding up the process. But I also knew it was worth the wait to have a really (and I mean really) good cup of coffee. So let us raise our cups to rejecting the quick fixes and keeping our eyes fixed on the good stuff.
Next . . . “M” as in Morning.
David writes in the Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.” He goes on to describe darkness in his soul. Despite this darkness, despite the seeming silence of his God, David holds on to his longing and waits for God. He longs for relief from his condition and yet keeps his eyes fixed on the hope that this darkness will lift and he will once again sing praises.
We live in a culture that works against the idea of longing. We are all about instant gratification and quick fixes. We are full of food, noise, entertainment, and stimuli. We have stuffed ourselves so full we have drowned out space for longing. We are content with the junk, but I fear we are missing out on the really good stuff.
Longing leads us to a deep intimacy. It is pursuing something beyond us – something more than what we currently have. To long for God is a pursuit of close proximity. Many of us are afraid of intimacy. We fear the unknown. We fear what others may see in us. We fear being disappointed. In our trepidation, we keep ourselves full. We consume junk to avoid the pains of hunger.
Longing requires us to quiet our environment enough to hear the groans of our soul. It is sitting in sacred silence and opening our hearts. It is allowing ourselves to feel the hunger pangs; to feel a deep thirst. Longing does not look for the quick fix to satisfy our hunger and thirst, but instead listens to the quiet yearnings and waits for the Source to fill it up.
Some form of meditation is found in every religion. Christian tradition has the mystics such as the Desert Fathers of the 400’s and the medieval mystics such as St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, and Meister Eckert. The mystics longed for powerful union with God. They pursued contemplative practices of prayer and sacred readings in pursuit of God, but also to increase their self-awareness. They were interested in identifying the self-imposed obstacles that kept them from a more perfect unity with God. They sought to know what in themselves needed to die in order that they may live in Christ. This form of prayer took discipline and time.
I fear in our fast-paced society we lack the patience to meditate on God as well as have thorough self-examinations of our conscience. Our quick fix mentality has cheapened our prayers and silenced our longing – “Three easy steps to the prayer life you have always wanted.” If only it were that easy.
Longing commits to the on-going pursuit of death to self in order to reach union with God. When I lived in Viet Nam, there were two kinds of coffee. One was instant Nescafe and the other was the French press. Nescafe was a quick fix, but its satisfaction was limited to squelching a caffeine headache. But the French press – it was slow to come to fruition. I would stare at the glass wanting it to hurry up knowing all along there was no speeding up the process. But I also knew it was worth the wait to have a really (and I mean really) good cup of coffee. So let us raise our cups to rejecting the quick fixes and keeping our eyes fixed on the good stuff.
Next . . . “M” as in Morning.
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