“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world” (C.S. Lewis).
No one likes to admit that they are dependent upon anyone or anything, and neither does anyone like to admit that they are desperate. This is understandable from one perspective. We all seek independence and we all (in some ways, rightly) develop a “can do” attitude about life that gives us the confidence that we can overcome any challenge or any obstacle that comes our way. “Dependent?” No way! “Desperate?” We can Beat that!
The Bible, however, paints a very different picture of humanity. Look at Psalm 42:
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so I long for you, God.
2 I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night,
while all day long people say to me,
“Where is your God?”
4 I remember this as I pour out my heart:
how I walked with many,
leading the festive procession to the house of God,
with joyful and thankful shouts.5 Why, my soul, are you so dejected?
Why are you in such turmoil?
Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 I am deeply depressed;
therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan
and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your billows have swept over me.
8 The Lord will send his faithful love by day;
his song will be with me in the night—
a prayer to the God of my life.9 I will say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about in sorrow
because of the enemy’s oppression?”
10 My adversaries taunt me,
as if crushing my bones,
while all day long they say to me,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you so dejected?
Why are you in such turmoil?
Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him,
my Savior and my God.
The psalmist is equating the thirst of a deer for water with his thirst or desire for God. If a deer doesn’t find water, then he dies! In the same way, the psalmist implies that if he doesn’t find God, then he dies! The psalmist is looking for God; he is looking for hope (verse 5, 11). Just like a deer looking for water on a dry day in the middle of the desert, so does the psalmist look for God.
There are Christian worship songs that mirror this desperation as well. I was recently prompted on YouTube to listen to this song through my “daily list.” I have not listened to it in years, but it struck me deeply as I thought about this idea of “desperation.” Here are the lyrics to that song, “Breathe.”
This is the Air I Breathe
This is the Air I Breathe
Your holy presence living in meThis is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word spoken to meAnd I
I’m desperate for you
And I
I’m lost without you”
It really is fascinating to watch or listen to a room full of people confess that they are “desperate” for God. Even if someone did not believe in God, this very confession, deep from within humans, ought to make one pause and wonder at this condition. Why are we desperate? For what are we desperate? How can this desperation be “cured”? Why do we “feel” the need to confess our desperation? If someone were found in the middle of the desert and they were crying out about how “desperate” they were for water and/or food, then that would be quite understandable. However, if you’re watching a roomful of, presumably, healthy individuals who all, likely, just got finished eating supper, are fully clothed (thankfully!), are fully hydrated, and are (presumably!) in their right minds, why would they cry out in “desperation” to someone or to something via song?! What is the nature of this “desperation” and how deep does this sense of desperation go?
I think it’s obvious that this sense of desperation is touching something deep within reality, something deep within humans. When one looks across the spectrum of humanity, one realizes that this desperation is a human condition that spans all cultures and continents. What is going on here? For what are they reaching? It is quite obvious that we are reaching for that which we do not have, and we are seeking for that which we have not currently found. Also, the very fact that we DO SEARCH shows that there IS SOMETHING “Out There,” otherwise, WHY would do we perform the “search” through song, prayer, Scripture reading, or some other spiritual activity? Maybe we are seeking purpose; maybe we are seeking meaning; maybe we are seeking love, acceptance, forgiveness, or any other number of things. It’s quite clear that we are creatures who lack and we are seeking, in various ways, to fill up and to supply that lack. I believe that when one closely observes this phenomenon, one will find that we are irrepressibly spiritual/religious creatures, and that this fact points to a true spiritual reality, namely, God’s existence.
Also, the fact that there are Christians who gather in a worship service could also give evidence not only that they are seeking that which is not seen, but that they are in that particular place of worship because it is there that they have, at least at times, found that which they are seeking; therefore, they Return to Receive again! One has found “water” in that “well,” therefore, one returns to that same “well” to drink of that “water” for which that person has been thirsting.
As we look at our own condition, and as we look to the Bible, we find at least 6 realities that contribute to our desperation:
- We are Creatures (we are aware that we, ourselves, are not God; that we, ourselves, are not the Creator and that we did not create ourselves)
- We are Mortal (we will all die one day)
- We Don’t Know (much!), especially not too much about God Almighty except for what He has revealed to us in the Bible
- We are Small (given the size of our universe, etc.)
- We are Sinners (we do wrong and we are wrong and our guilt, as well as the Word, shows this to be so; we are indelibly marked by sin, by evil, by wrong desires, etc., and everyone knows this)
- We are Seeking (again, we are “seeking creatures” on a search or a hunt…we KNOW that there is SOMETHING missing, thus we seek to find it)
Each one of these conditions contributes to our desperation and each one is, I think, a pointer to the existence of God. I think that trying to explain away this sense of “desperation,” (especially given the 6 factors mentioned above) simply does not work from a naturalistic viewpoint. There is “more” to us than mere physical matter, there is “more” to this life than just what we see, and most of humanity (rightly expressed or wrongly expressed) knows this. In my view, since the majority of the people that have ever existed have been religious in some sense (again, rightly expressed or wrongly expressed), I believe that this ought to make the naturalistic atheist, or the skeptic of the supernatural, to pause and reconsider his/her position.