Living with Longing - Part 1

"Spirituality is what we do with our desires" (Rolheiser). From my (Jim) perspective I couldn't agree more. Every human being is crammed full of desire. Christian spiritual formation depends on the direction and condition of our deepest longings, on their object and how they are expressed. David said, as the deer pants after the water, so pants my soul after thee, O God." He knew he had a longing heart and he did his best to have his longings reaching for God.Longing is the God-given energy that moves and motivates us. It is a fire that cannot be quenched without life (literally) disappearing from our bodies. So we cannot escape our longings while we are alive. But what we do with our longings is critical to spiritual maturity. As best we can we live more fulfilled and alive when we live with our longings providing a tailwind in our life. Constantly living against our longings is exhausting and ultimately impossible.How then can followers of Christ benefit from the energy of longings. We know we have longings that are not reaching for what is good. Is there anything we can do to change that? Yes. As Rolheiser intimated, our Christian maturity depends on what we do with our desires.What we must remember about our longings is that they always reach for whatever it is that we deem to be beautiful. Because desire always moves toward beauty we must cultivate a healthy and holy sense of what is truly beautiful. As the Psalmist said, "Let the beauty of the Lord be upon us."How are you cultivating a 'beatific' vision? Is holiness a thing of beauty? To the degree we have been captured by the beauty of Christ we will find our longings motivating and moving us toward spiritual maturity.