This is the Yearning That Was Meant to Be Filled
He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Amplified
There’s a mysterious longing that consciously or unconsciously, we all try to fill, sometimes at great cost.
The woman in the burn unit was eager to talk to the chaplain who came by to visit her. She had intentionally set herself on fire and then called emergency services. “Listen,” the woman said, “I need you to believe me. I’m not crazy. I didn’t want to kill myself. I just wanted to be closer to God.”[1] As chaplain Emily Boring, walked with the woman in her lengthy healing journey, Boring realized that her own struggle with eating disorders was the same painful cry for connection.
Boring writes, “Here’s what I’ve come to believe: Beneath every self-destructive human behavior is the desire for connection. The behavior is distorted, but the desire is sound. And here’s what fascinates me: Beneath our longing for connection is also the belief that connection is possible, even when our actions seem to say otherwise.”[2]
The Bible book of Ecclesiastes names this longing for connection, saying, [God] “has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a Amplified). The book of Acts chapter 17 tells that God created us so that we “…would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27).
Is that desire for connection and meaning unfulfilled in your life? This is what God says to you today: “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me” (Jeremiah 29:13).
[1] Boring, Emily. “What the Body Means to Say.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 Nov. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/mental-illness-anorexia-eating-disorder-recovery/672271/.
[2] Ibid.