The Wilderness of God’s Will

There is a never ending longing placed in every one of our hearts for something more…for deeper fulfillment and greater joy. We seek it out in relationships, travel, sports, music, books and love and spend our lives in an endless pursuit to find it. As I’ve been reflecting on my past year and looking towards the next, I’ve been reminded of that longing. And in my process of creating a list of New Years resolutions I realized that every one of them points directly back to it. Because hidden behind the desire to travel more, read more, learn more, explore more, and even to find love is the search for ultimate fulfillment. And it is in us all, the desire for true happiness, fulfillment and beauty…but what we so often get wrong is that the beauty that we chase after so relentlessly in experiences, relationship, and things will never be found in the experiences, relationships or things themselves.

C.S. Lewis says it best when he says,
…“The books or the music (or the people) in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them,and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.” (The Weight of Glory)

…A longing that can only and will only be fulfilled in eternity. And so as long as we are on this earth, the only ultimate fulfillment that exists is found in chasing after the Creator Himself. And that is what I am struck with as I begin another precious year of my life. I am inspired to make the ultimate aim of this next year of my life and every year after: To chase after Christ and ultimately become more like Him. Not for what He can give but for the simple beauty of Himself. To not chase after comfort, material possessions, experiences, people or love to find my fulfillment but to enjoy those things simply as the amazing gifts that they are from the ultimate Fulfiller. And to ultimately embrace the beautiful wilderness that obedience and following His call often leads me into…the wilderness that demands my trust, my faith and my undying devotion to Him. Because after trying to do things on my own one too many times and coming up short, I have to surrender and acknowledge that I’d rather be lost in the wilderness of God’s will than found at the center of my own.

So that’s my new years resolution this year: To become more like Christ. And I suppose my aim and prayer for sharing this with you all is not to gain accolades and pats on the back but to inspire relentless passion, pursuit and love in each and every one of you in your walks with the Lord and in your pursuits and resolutions for this year. And to remind us all that the wilderness of God’s will is the most beautiful place we can be. It is sometimes (though not always) unpredictable, scary and challenging but it is the only place on this earth where true joy, fulfillment and beauty can be found.