Moments for Singles: Greener Grass

What gift are you hoping for, wishing for, longing for, right now? A mate? A date? A better job? A long vacation? Children? A financial windfall? Chances are your wishes, your longings, your desires, lie just beyond your ability to fulfill them. They may be just out of reach, but they’re there – if you’re honest enough to admit them.

Somewhere between childhood and adulthood we learn that it’s safest to disguise our true desires, or at least to keep quiet about them. We learn to disregard the “greener grass” we yearn for, and focus instead on whatever satisfaction we have managed to find. We construct lives for ourselves where “busyness substitutes for meaning, efficiency substitutes for creativity and functional relationships substitute for love.”

We may willingly edit our desires, but God never asks us to. He knows what we may not yet understand: our desire – our longing for something more – can actually direct our hearts toward Him.  In fact, Christianity has next to nothing to say to the person who feels completely happy with the way things are. Its message is for those of us who hunger and thirst.

Could it be that God is preparing you to receive more of Himself by frustrating you with less than you expected from life?  Could the hunger in your heart today have less to do with the “greener grass” of marriage or a family or an exciting career than it does with a desire for richer relationship with the living God?

Everybody tries to fill their “gaps” with something.  Maybe you’ve tried to fill yours with religion, or work, or overeating, or too much shopping, or sex.  Guess what? It won’t work. Our restless hearts really were made to find their rest in Him. Nothing else completely satisfies. The comfort of any other fix is only temporary.

Are you ready to give up the dash for greener grass and follow your Maker “further up and further in”? You might be if…

• You’re tired of performing to please others and dissatisfied with your accomplishments, even when others praise them.
• You don’t appreciate the love you receive, but always seem to want more.
• You’re bored with the things that money can buy, yet you still keep spending.
• You’re longing for something more than you can get for yourself or the world can give.

Before God can open our eyes to the beauty of His Son, He must dim our satisfaction with the things of this world. Are you disappointed with what you have and are longing for more? Listen carefully. What seems like discontent could be the voice of your Beloved calling you closer to Him in love