What are you looking for? (Part 3)

Let us consider Jesus’ question personally for a moment: What are you looking for?

If I stood on the sidewalk at a busy street corner and asked Jesus’ question to 100 people, I would probably receive 100 different answers. Some might say, “What I am looking for is money… a vacation, a promotion at work, a spouse, children, or simply a good night’s sleep.” Others might say, “What I seek is health, recognition, appreciation,” or something else entirely.

Even though some of these answers may seem a bit superficial, none of them are bad in themselves. However, what do these responses, indeed, any response to Jesus’ question, reveal? They reveal a truth that is both deeply liberating and, at the same time, often painful and difficult for us to accept. The truth is this: we are incomplete on our own, and no person or thing can ultimately satisfy or fulfill us except God alone.

Because of this objective truth about human nature and our life in this world, we must sincerely ask ourselves: Is what I desire most right now truly realistic? Is it in harmony with my humanity? Is what I desire eternal—something that will endure forever—or is it something that is here today and gone tomorrow? Are the things, people, and places I desire most right now capable of fulfilling me and satisfying the deepest longings of my heart?

Very often, the problem in life is not that we desire too much, but that we desire too little. In other words, we do not desire God enough.

Throughout human history, people especially philosophers, politicians, and religious seekers, have often tried to identify a single root cause of humanity’s problems. Some have concluded that humanity’s greatest issue is economic: the widening divide between the rich and the poor. According to this view, if wealth were redistributed more evenly, humanity would finally be able to live in peace. Others argue that the central problem is political. They believe that governments or current regimes oppress their people and use power to advance their own self-centered goals and ideas. If the ruling party were replaced, many assume, peace would come to the land. Still others suggest that the primary problem is psychological. In this perspective, childhood wounds, trauma, and the suffering people experience throughout life prevent individuals, and societies, from achieving true peace and balance. To be clear, none of these factors are irrelevant. However, none of them alone can fully explain the root of all humanity’s problems.

In my view, the root of many of our problems is an identity crisis. Humanity repeatedly struggles because we forget who we are. When we do not know who we are, or who we belong to, we also lose sight of where we came from and where we are going. Without that understanding, we cannot properly orient ourselves in the present moment. As a result, we often make decisions, adopt attitudes, and form habits that contradict our essential dignity as children of God. We end up spending much of our lives chasing the things of this world, believing they will satisfy our deepest desires. Yet they never do.

Why can the things of this world not satisfy us? St. John expresses it simply: “We are of God” (1 John 4:6). In other words, we belong to God. Because we belong to Him, the world and its possessions cannot ultimately fulfill us. Only God can satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart.

There is, however, more. We do not belong to a God who simply demands worship and reverence like some dictator in this world. Rather, we belong to a God who desires us. St. Paul writes that God “desires the salvation of all” (1 Timothy 2:4). In desiring our salvation, God desires that we spend eternity with Him. Therefore, there is no question that God desires us. This is a fundamental truth about human life, one we must keep in mind, especially if we seek to grow in the spiritual life.

Without this awareness, prayer and the gift of ourselves to God can easily remain at the level of duty and obligation. Our very existence is itself an objective sign of God’s desire for us, for we would not exist if we were not first a desire in the heart of God. The more deeply we believe and live this truth, the more fully alive we become.

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity writes in one of her letters: “He bends over us with all his charity, day and night, wanting to communicate with us, to infuse us with his divine life.” She continues, “I am praying fervently for you, that God may invade all the powers of your soul, that he may make you live in communion with his whole mystery, that everything in you may be divine and marked with his seal, so that you may be another Christ working for the glory of the Father.”^[1]

These words reveal a woman who is on fire with love for God and who knows, in the depths of her soul, God’s desire for her. She longs for God above all else and wishes the same for others. Imagine receiving a text message or an email from someone who said, “I am praying fervently for you, that God may invade all the powers of your soul…” That would be a message worth saving, and a friend worth keeping, because more than anything, they desire for you to be alive with the love and desire for God.

We return, then, to Jesus’ question: What do you seek? How we answer will shape the course of our lives. If we seek only the things of this world, we will inevitably remain restless and unsatisfied. But if we seek God above all else, we will discover the One for whom our hearts were created. For the deepest truth about our lives is this: we are desired by God, and only in Him will our longing find its rest.

^[1] The Complete Works: Volume 2. St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. ICS Publications, Washington, DC, 2014, 53.