The Desire of Our Soul

Isaiah 26:8-9

Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

We are sojourners in the world.  The earth is our home, and yet, it lacks permanence; there is something in the way of fulfillment that is lacking.  We wander and we wonder, insatiated, knowing that there is something more, sensing that there is something missing from the world, something for which our spirits yearn, for which our hearts were made.  It’s a nice life, most of the time, well-stocked with pretty and pleasant things, able to get our hearts racing.  But, though the engines rev and roar, the earthly destinations, gained, are unfulfilling.  Our hearts do not quiet in peaceful, replete rest.  We know that this is not all, this racing and gaining that which is lost inevitably.  In the dust and mold of relentless revolving, all things of the world are lost.  Only that for which our spirits truly thirst, only that for which our hearts deeply hunger, can ever satisfy our human longing.  And, so, we are sojourners in this world of dust and mold and cares for what is able to be grabbed.  All hands must weaken, all fingers must loose, all beautiful faces, textures, smiles, tears, must dissolve into the dust from which they were formed.  But, the soul… the soul alive in every human person, the soul, vibrant and vital, must live, must ever exist and perpetually love… and so love what is perpetual, what is permanent and ever alive, that which is living and breathing through the lovely eyes, the beloved smiles, the breath and tears of every life, that for which our spirits yearn, for which our hearts are made, that something more that is no thing of this world, that something who is a someone, the Infinite, Eternal One, the Holy, Immortal One, Life giving life to us, living through us, our ultimate source and our ultimate destination – our home.

It is a lovely world and it is good to be alive in it when we know that through it lives the fullness of life – the fullness of truth, the fullness of love, the fullness of joy – glimpsed by us when we seek the best and richest fruits imported here by Love.