My grandfather was a Harley-riding, South Dakota born, good ol’ boy. He didn’t become a believer in Jesus until later in life. His conversion to Christianity always intrigued me. Why would this guy with a decent life full of excitement choose to follow the Bible with rules that would, at first glance, appear to keep him from his pleasures?
He worked as an electrical engineer. Often his work would take him on the road and inevitably landed him in a small town in South Dakota where there was nothing to do in the evenings after work. One evening, out of activity options, he decided to read a Bible in his hotel room. Before hotels were all equipped with televisions it was much easier to have time to truly reflect. As he flipped through the pages, reading story after story about Jesus and his disciples, he discovered something – there was a mission and purpose so much bigger than anything he had experienced before. In the pages of that ancient text he tasted commitment, deep friendship, faithfulness and hope at a whole new level. He had been captured by heaven’s delight and it satisfied an emptiness that nothing else ever had.
Interesting – he discovered he had a longing for something that couldn’t be satisfied by anything on earth.
When we are hungry, there is food to satisfy that need. If we desire to procreate, there is the potential for that, too. Feeling lonely? Friendship. Tired? Rest.
Metaphysical longings? Where did they come from? How did they evolve? Every tribe, every nation … why are these longings in us?
My grandpa is not alone. So many including myself find Christ out of wonder. But, don’t take my word for it.
Oxford professor C.S. Lewis:
A man’s physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will.
Do I have all the answers in life? No. Do I have a hunger that can’t be filled by anything on this planet? Yes.