Thirst that leads to Aching

I have been struck this week by a quote I read in John Eldredge's book, The Journey of Desire. Eldredge's basic thesis of this book is that God has placed within each one of us a specific set of desires that are unique to us and therefore compel us. Some of us pursue these desires; others pull a Jonah and try to run from them, but find that they cannot because these desires are the basic fabric of who they are...And it results in several troubles.

In Chapter 11, Eldredge is talking about recovering and living with thrist and hunger as the M.O. of our lives. He makes this statement that I understood immediately when I read it for the first time. He said "To live thirsty is to live with an ache." Let those words sink in for a moment. Eldredge makes direct application of this statement in both physical and spiritual contexts. I will comment on it from the spiritual context. I have read similar statements from many others including, Augustine, Tozer, Gary Thomas, Pascal, Piper, to name a few. But Eldredge's combining of thirsting and aching are spot on.

As a man efforting to live a life that authenticly pursues the glory of God in my life, thirsting should be the hallmark of my life and the cry of my heart. And having my thirst quenched by an eternal being leaves my heart aching for eternity itself. My heart will ache because it knows that it was meant for another place and another time and because of Jesus, my heart knows it is going to be made whole and complete some day, which is satisfying and dehydrating at the same time.

The point is that Jesus has promised (Matt. 5) that those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled." Our thirst and hunger must be at the forefront of our lives. We must pursue satisfaction from eternal sources and not from sources that this temporal world offers. Jesus has promised to hear us and fill us.

Therefore, we are to live our lives in constant pursuit of the fulfiller of our hunger and thirst. We are to live being: Always Hungry. Always Satisfied.

SDG

JW