Post-Holiday Blues and a longing for something more

The longer and longer I live (only 24 years so far, but I feel older) I realize more and more that any longing and desire for anything in this world will always dissapoint. If you are like me this past week (that week between Christmas and New Years) may have been pretty blah, boring, a let-down, felt some sort of disallusionment.

I have been busy a lot this past fall, so was really looking forward to relaxing and doing nothing this past week and a half. Now that I've been doing absolutely nothing this past week., I feel lazy and that I should be doing something, accomplishing something. And as soon as I am knee deep in business in the next week or two, I will want rest again. So it seems with everything in life, the presents and all the hype around christmas time esepcially point this out to us. All the hype building up to the holidays, then they dissapoint, and we are off looking for our next high. The next thing we can look forward to, hoping that will totally fulfill us.

I think C.S Lewis sums this unmet desire in our hearts up best.
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my own true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”

This rings so true

Now many Christians would point out and say, that means we must then never seek pleasure or have any fun and make our sole goal to honor God and nothing else matters. And would point to the book of Ecclesiastes to make this point. That the message behind Ecclesiastes is that all is vanity in this life, only God will fulfill. And this is definately the main point. But I have now read Ecclesiastes many times and it always intrigues me. I see now that obviously the main point is that we should pursue God, but this however does not mean neglecting earthly pleasures all together. It means we enjoy them with proper perspective and understanding.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 reads " I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime, morever, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor- it is the gift of God"

A commentary on this verse reads " As we do good work in our generation, the preacher gives us permission to celebrate the good things of life -eating and drinking and enjoying the pleasures that God has made for us to enjoy. Of course, it is always a temptation for us to live for earthly pleasure, serving our appetites instead of serving Jesus. The good things in life so easily become our gods, which is absolute vanity. But the way to resist temptation is not by avoiding everyting. Rather we avoid idoaltry by gratefully receving the good things of life as blessing from God."

So that longing in your heart, will never be fulfilled here on earth. Our job is simply to do good for God, love Him with all of our being. Work hard, but also enjoy life and the pleasure of it, such as friends, sporting events, entertainment, food, festivals and such. Just don't let it be your God.