That ache

You know that ache you get in your heart sometimes - the good ache? The one that fills you with a sweet longing for beauty, for something more? In his autobiography, CS Lewis called this longing a desire for holiness. God created us with this desire - He created us to dwell in His presence, to see perfect beauty. We were created to be holy, as He is holy. And now in Christ, we can become holy in God's eyes - and bring more of His holiness into the world, helping make things a little more the way they should be. The way we were created to long for them to be.

I've come to realize that satisfying this deep longing for holiness does not lead to legalism, as we so often tend to think. False holiness does. But seeking this true holiness of God leads us to His true justice, helping us better see the world as it should be and equipping us with the lasting passion to help make it so.

We were all made for something more, and in this life we get reflections "as in a mirror" - little glimpses of glory and beauty. For me, it's standing at the top of a mountain and closing my eyes, hearing the Spirit of God breathe around me and feeling that in the whole expanse of the earth it is only Him and me, walking in the Garden.

I feel this ache also when I encounter Aslan in Narnia as I re-read the Pevensie's adventures. I feel this beautiful longing as I imagine that I, like Lucy, can see Aslan in the distance, beckoning me to follow, and know that He desires to use me in my own small way to fight for Narnia.

These pangs remind me there is MORE and fills me with passion to share the hope that this ache for holiness points me toward. What fills you with this ache for more? What reminds you of God’s beauty, His holiness?

Today, dwell in this ache for a moment and let it lead you to the One who created you for more. Let it push you to be holy as He is holy, ushering in more of His Kingdom. Let it remind you of His promise of what is to come.

Revelation 21:1-7

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!” 
- CS Lewis, The Last Battle

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
- CS Lewis, The Last Battle