Our lives here today are better than any have been throughout history. Our stomachs have never been fuller our homes have never been nicer or safer and our lives have never been longer. We can travel anywhere in the world in a matter of hours enjoy any global cuisine right outside our doors and witness a plethora of academic and artistic wonders at our constant disposal. With all of this material wealth and leisure it seems on paper that we should be the happiest people ever.
Yet as our lives have become measurably better they also seem to have become emptier. With such an excess of material things true meaning seems to be in short supply. Nothing ever seems to be enough. We attempt to fill our lives with more and more stuff hoping to bring meaning to them but constantly come up short. Look around especially here in sunny Malibu one of the richest places on earth and you will see people trying to find purpose in their fast cars designer jeans and seaside vistas.
Yet few seem to be truly fulfilled truly at peace with their lives. The rat race continues desires linger and we cannot for the life of us discover what it is that will quench them.C.S. Lewis one of the most brilliant writers of the last century proposed that perhaps we had these desires for something that was to come. In one of his most popular works “Mere Christianity he stated, 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.”
His words could not be truer to what I often feel. However I must take issue with the traditional belief that the world of which he speaks is found only after our life here on earth is over. It seems absurd to champion a mere contentedness with this world in light of a hope we might have for the next. To passively accept the world as it is and stop our chasing after meaning in this life would be a great tragedy greater even than looking for this meaning in the wrong place.
Instead of this complacent view I propose this: maybe heaven this more perfect form of the world we now live in is meant to start right here. And maybe it is supposed to start with us within us.
Instead of hoping to enter God’s kingdom after we leave this earth perhaps we should be more concerned with making earth a piece of his kingdom. Instead of accepting the status quo because it’s just the way things are and letting the flaws of man trump idealism we should try believing that another order might be possible. And instead of diverting our attention to the purchasing of more and more material possessions maybe we should focus much more on the pleasures of sacrificing for others.
If we look at the words and actions attributed to Jesus they are so radically opposed to this idea of either piously standing by yearning for eternity with God or filling the emptiness with worldly things. And they are certainly no defense for the status quo. Instead they are bent on action on pursuit of purpose on deep relationship and great sacrifice.
He said “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” Not eternal life full life here. Jesus healed people. He urged people to give to the poor. He lived three years of aimless wandering and poverty that he might better connect with and serve those with whom he came into contact in his travels. His ways were unconventional. So how can we ever expect to find this depth of meaning in conventional material ways?
Many will still stand by content with praying for their eternal souls and merely surviving in this world. Many will still chase after worldly possessions in a fruitless pursuit to bring meaning to their lives. Many will let the corrupt ways of the world steal their dreams for the ideal. But let us hope we will find or rather give something more transcendent. By sacrificing for others mobilizing for the causes of the sick and the poor and the fatherless and giving genuine life-changing love to those around us perhaps we will help bring into being the world which our souls truly desire.
Jesus taught his followers to pray to God “Thy kingdom come they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
I think he meant it. So should we.