C. S. Lewis wrote, “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” (from Mere Christianity).
We agree with Mr. Lewis, don’t we? His words make sense. What we probably don’t like, however, are the disillusionments we must suffer in order that our hearts are turned to “another world.” That kind of change does not come easily.
The past year, and the one before it, are not “lost years” for those who are in Christ, even though they brought many hardships. If anything, they can be seen as a season of heavenly realignment … if we let them.
One such change begins at a very personal level, in the privacy of your own heart, where you truly begin to “seek the things that are above” because you’ve found no permanence of peace in the things that are earthly. The loss of normalcy, the removal of presumption, has drawn you toward the greater reality of a life that is “hidden with Christ in God.”
The truth is, your heart’s home is in another place. And so, little by little (and sometimes much by much) God is loosening your grip on everything that will end up on the trash heap, so that your affections will be transferred to “another world.”
If then you have been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above,
not on things that are on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears,
then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you …
(Colossians 3:1-5 ESV)