The past few days there has really been like a burning desire in my heart for the promise of heaven. I agree with this statement of C.S. Lewis. One of the greatest agreements for the existence of a creator is the burning desire of mankind to find God and the innate sense that there has to be something more. That desire for God, for answers, and that deep knowledge that this world cannot be all there is in my mind is the foundation of faith. Where did that desire come from if not planted by our God, and revealed to us as a deep intuitive knowledge that He, God exists? Mankind has sought to find Him from the beginning of history as we know it. Searching for meaning and searching for truth is at the root of human existence, it drives us and it is the emptiness of human life without meaning and truth and the value of life with it that becomes the proof that Truth and Meaning are there to be found. In addition to the freeing nature of truth and meaning, it’s the existence of right and wrong as concepts that also give us a hint into the logic behind there being a higher power. No matter what side of any issue you land on, your opinion or passion is grounded in what you believe to be right and wrong. The complexity of just determining what is right and good versus what is wrong or bad means that in us somewhere we all believe there is a barometer for what is good and true and what is evil and bad. What is that measuring tool and where did it come from if not from a higher all-knowing power? C.s. Lewis challenges us with these lines of thinking and through exploring these concepts I have found freedom in a deep faith that though I cannot know the entirety of who God is, I know He is there.

We look at life with it’s beginning and ending, as Americans, like a timeline to in which our purpose becomes to acquire, accomplish, or experience things, people, or places or as an excuse to live life our way without really considering the cost very much. We approach life as if it owes us something and if we don’t receive what we are owed, somehow we have been ripped off.

What would happen if we looked at life as the training ground for our true home, our life eternal? What would happen if we truly believed the experiences in life were solely to shape us and mold us into our true self, the self we were created to be? What if who we are at birth is just a hint of who God intends for us to become, and that in His wisdom he uses our experiences both good and bad to shape us and mold us into our true selves if we surrender to Him? In surrendering we allow Him to be the potter and end up looking to Him with praise and in awe of his wisdom in creating a world where we can fall and get up wiser.

If I look at life through that lens then life is no longer a clock ticking down with less and less time to experience, have, or achieve what I ‘deserve’. Instead it becomes a training ground where I put in the time training, but all the time looking forward to the payoff that comes when the clock finally stops. Knowing that time with my loved ones and with God doesn’t end when the clock stops, but instead it truly begins with a new more pure and completely fulfilling life. A life that will no longer bring with it the pain of the struggle experienced in this world, but instead gratefulness for the pruning that the struggle brought and the joy in knowing the struggle is no more. In the place of that struggle, there will be the unveiling of the truth and meaning we have sought since birth and immeasurable gratitude that would not be known without the history of struggle.