The God Fix

This is a notoriously difficult time of year in Northeast Ohio. Ten times a day, you’re likely to hear ten different people say something like, “I’d feel better if we could just be done with this weather.”

In early April, as it is still lightly snowing off and on and still rather sunless, we start to feel restless. We start to crave sunshine. Actually, we start to feel like we might not make it without – like its importance resembles that of water or air. We’re getting desperate for a break; for a change; for the newness of spring to finally burst forth and offer us the refreshment of hope.

It’s been a long winter.

At the risk of seeming trite, I’d like to offer a thought about longing. Yes, I agree: some sunshine and warmth at this point would be wonderful. I would welcome it as much as any other. But the reality of our longings, all our longings, is that they stem from one giant need: our need for God.

At the root of every desire, we find an unsettling truth: until we’re home, we’re always going to face longing. And we might not always have our longings instantly met.

In fact, in most cases, the things we think we’re longing for won’t really be the things that satisfy us – not completely. Only One can satisfy. And that’s the beauty of knowing Him here and knowing Him now.

I can tell you from experience, waiting for spring (waiting for anything) in the hopes that it will come and change you is often an exercise in futility. Because we will always come up with something else to wait for; to long for.

But using our longing to bring us closer to Him? That is genius. That is wisdom from above.

That is ultimate fulfillment.

Someday, our longing will be a thing of our past. We will be with God and we will be incapable of feeling the sting of not having what we want because we will finally know – face to face – all that we need.

I suspect, when we’re in that place, we will remember what it was like to long and we’ll be so very grateful that we looked to God to fulfill our needs because our needs will have brought us to a real relationship in Christ. If we wouldn’t have understood our need for Him, we wouldn’t have sought Him.

And seeking Him is what will have brought us home.

So instead of surrendering to restlessness, today would be a good day to take those feelings directly to the God of our hearts. Talk with Him. Listen to Him. Just enjoy the communion.

In believing He alone can quench our thirsty souls, we practice trust. We practice gratitude. And we begin to remember there is a faster route to spring…

that doesn’t require waiting another week or two.

Warmth. Light. Refreshment. Joy.

God is all these things. And because of Jesus, we don’t have to wait to experience Him.

We can know spring now…

as it begins in our hearts.

Isaiah 58:11

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

Happy Spring, dear friends.