Yearning

Every now and then I end up in a situation where I inadvertently listen to secular music. I'm not saying all of it is inherently evil, some of the songs are alright, but I'm just not into that type of music. Also, you have to sift through all the weird songs, some of which are quite perverse, to even get to the good ones. Anyway, I've gone entirely off topic now. I didn't pop on just to bash secular music, hang on there for a second!

I'm the kind of person who doesn't just listen to the beat, instruments or voices of a song. I listen to the lyrics. When I get in these situations where I sort of can't get away from the music without making a scene, what do I do? I end up trying to make out the lyrics; which can be both a blessing and a curse. Perhaps I should just make a scene. Anyway. . . .

When I'm listening to most of these songs, I've sensed a pattern. In most of these songs, there is a longing. Either the person is longing for a true love, or some ineffective replacement such as lust, drugs or, well, we won't go there. You get the idea. Sometimes the person ends up trying desperately to do something to fill this hole in the human heart, and it ends up in disaster. In the songs where the person is singing about  the ineffective replacements, the real story line has already taken place. They've already experienced this  yearning, and this is their desperate attempt to fill the hole, though they may not realize it.

What is this yearning? Why do we all yearn for a true, pure love? I'm not just talking about the fairy-tale version of true love, I'm talking real true love. Why do we all have this hole in our hearts that aches so much? How can we fill it?

There is only one remedy for this longing. What we are really longing for is God's Love. Yes, He loves us more than we can fathom, even if we've never connected with Him. But this longing has been put in our hearts to turn us back to Him. In order to fill this hole, we have to love Him. And when we love Him, and submit ourselves to His plans, we just might find more love along the way!

Here's the "kicker", if you want to call it that. You'll never completely get rid of this yearning. The hole s never completely full until we get to Heaven. You see, the more a person loves God, the more they end up yearning for Him in the end. But it's a different feeling than the yearning above, because this person has the remedy, they just can't take the full dose of it yet. It's a hopeful yearning, it brings us more life; whereas the yearning above is often full of despair and doubt. What does this person do when they yearn again for God? They love Him even more! It lifts them up, it helps them see over the clouds of this darkened life, it brings them a joy that can't be explained. Even in the darkest parts of their life, they have Love, they have Hope, they have Faith.

So then, when this person starts filling the hole with love for God, what happens? God is Love. So when we started filling our hearts with a true love of God, we fill our hearts with Him. The result is that if we are truly filling our Hearts with God, our hearts will become more and more like His heart. We will notice ourselves becoming kinder, more compassionate, merciful, pure, honest, joyful, patient, etc., we will start seeing virtues and the fruits of the Holy Spirit start to grow in ourselves all over the place!

So in the end, if we really love God,  our hearts will be so filled with God that we will be united to Him in Heaven. But we must remember; Love = Sacrifice. Jesus told us that if we love Him, we will keep His Commandments. In order to keep these commands, we will face difficulties and have to make sacrifices. Really these Commands set us free from the slavery of sin, but our sinful condition makes it hard to really let go of the shackles that have bound us. It doesn't really make sense that we would want to be bound in them again, but when we sin, we actually bind ourselves u in them! Why? Well, we are humans, and due to original sin we will always struggle to not be attracted to some kind of evil.

So fill your heart with God! It's worth it.



P.S., Aren't you glad you didn't hit the X button when you got bored of my secular music rant?!