The Heart’s Contentment

The Heart’s Contentment

Read: Matthew 22:34-39

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Matthew 22:37-38

“We are half- hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. We are far too easily pleased.”

—C. S. Lewis

IN WORD Despite our extraordinary calling—to experience God’s love and to love Him in return—we fill our lives with idols. Given the greatest invitation in the universe, we treat it as an obligation that we might be able to squeeze in around our other interests. Could anything be more ludicrous? The infinite, holy, jealous, merciful, mighty Ancient of Days makes a straight path for us into His heart of passion, and our response is so often to say, “We’ll see; I’ve got some other things I’d like to do, too.” The angels must be astonished at the squandering of such an opportunity.

The idols of our hearts grip us tightly. We are afraid to let go of them. We are, in imagery provided by C. S. Lewis, like children content to make mud pies in a slum because we can’t imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation at the beach. We hang on to what we know—our idols—because fellowship with God is too incredible for us to grasp.

Our idols are essentially one-night stands. They provide a moment of empty pleasure, but there is no lasting joy in them. They string us along with the offer of contentment, but contentment never comes. They rob us of something far more valuable—an intimacy of infinite depth with a Lover whose love has no limits.

IN DEED The passions that draw us away from God can be intense. Jesus does not ask us to rid ourselves of passion, but to turn that passion toward God. When we realize this and break ourselves free from the illusions—or delusions—that make us think we can find fulfillment in anything other than Him, our lives begin to resemble watered, fruitful oases where there was once desert. Determine to pursue God in love as a response to His loving pursuit of you. Leave everything else behind.