Made for Another World
Updated: Sep 22, 2022
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis famously wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Our world is fundamentally dissatisfying. We know this.
Lewis goes on to say: “Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy [our desire], but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”
When God cursed mankind and futility entered the world and death many things had to change. As humanity, God’s children progressed in their fallen condition Christ Jesus and the Person of the Holy Spirit were at work striving with each person and continues to do so. Since we no longer will do what God commands or asks even after Christ on the Cross other elements and conditions in life and the world had to be able to influence our souls and spirit.
Even with Christ as our savior we often tend to believe that earthly things will satisfy our deepest cravings. The fact we are dissatisfied points to Christ and to heaven and helps us recognize right desires and helps us repent of related sins.
Lewis says, “I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”
Only after death, in the intermediate disembodied state and ultimately when we are resurrected to be at home in the New Heaven and New earth will this dissatisfaction be eliminated.
If we take time to understand our desires, we find what we really desire is something only heaven can provide. If we work at our daily walk with Christ and stop grumbling about what’s missing, we can anticipate the fullness and satisfaction we’ll enjoy in Heaven—and we should encourage others to do the same.