Satisfying your heart's hunger
Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9:56AM The best antidote for sin is a deeply-satisfying life. Not an easy life; nor a life in which all our longings are met at this moment; but a meaningful life. Your heart is looking for meaning and life. Ours is a Gospel of life: "“All the growth of the Christian is the more and more life he is receiving,” says the old poet George MacDonald.
Cutting ourselves off from legitimate pleasures will only weaken us. Here's what Dallas Willard says on this:
Normally, our success in overcoming temptation will be easier if we are basically happy in our lives. To cut off the joys and pleasures associated with our bodily and social existence as "unspiritual,' then, can actually have the effect of weakening us in our efforts to do what is right."
As much as you are able, give your heart what it needs. For me, that means regular, meaningful conversation. It also means a frequent intake of beauty and nature, as well as solitude -- I don't want to hear the sound of a car or see a McDonalds for miles around. Just nature. When my heart is receiving these gifts I am less likely to yield to false substitutes.
In fact, George MacDonald, who influenced C.S. Lewis more than any other writer, suggested that we sin when we give ourselves over to anything that is less than us: “A man is in bondage to whatever he cannot part with that is less than himself." Notice the gracious and noble view MacDonald holds of the redeemed person. We are of such worth to God that to give in to anything less than our own worth is sin. You don’t fill new wineskins with poor wine, or healthy bodies with synthetic foods, or noble minds with depraved images. It’s not what we were meant for because those things are less than ourselves.
How about you? Try listing three things your heart needs for life and nourishment.
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Sources:
- George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons
- Dallas Willard, Spirit of the Disciplines
- C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald – Anthology, (New York: HarperCollins, 2001).
Reader Comments (2)
Great post, Jim.
I believe this new life is best lived out when we remove all of the masks and just be who we are. Religion has convinced us that the real ME isn't good enough and that it needs to be killed off. Instead, I believe we should celebrate who we are and free ourselves to do those things that add joy to our lives.
For each of us, it will be different but as we come to know and enjoy the real ME, nourishing our hearts will cause us to experience the fulness of life that Jesus said he would give us.
Aida, you're right that religion sabotages the real us -- in part, because we use phrases like, "crucify the self," or "I need to get out of God's way." In fact, the real issue is crucifying the old self, the old heart -- not our new heart (new self.) By not being clear on this, the Church has actually killed the good heart while producing very little actual holiness -- look at the meager affect we've had on the culture around us. What we've been doing and preaching hasn't produced the change we've hoped for -- either within or with out.