Soulchat Articles

What’s God got to do with it?

I read a book called Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus. These are my thoughts.

It’s hard to define the things inside my heart. I wonder if I’m the only one who feels what I feel and wants what I want. Am I the same as others in this mass of humanity, or am I alone in my experiences?

Maybe you sometimes feel the same way.

In high school, I had a vague notion that when I graduated I would take off for a couple days, go somewhere in the wild, set up a tent, and spend three days with myself. My hope was that at the end of the time, with nothing but myself and some food, I would have a better idea of who I am and what I want, and where to head with my life.

It’s six years later, and I would still like a getaway like that. Even to myself, I’m a mystery.

I know I want things, but I can’t always recognize what they are. Sometimes I hear people (especially musicians) articulate some profound thought or experience that resonates with my heart, and I wonder, “How do they know? Are we that much the same?”

Some themes in life are reoccurring. In many different ways, different places and different voices, human desires are articulated.
    * Intimacy
    * Destiny
    * Meaning

It seems that these are integral parts of the human make-up, but why? What makes us long for these things?

**Given all the problems love can create, why do we keep longing for it? How many thousands of years will it take for us to learn? How many Romeos and Juliets need to lie dead on the floor before we’re willing to give up this perverse addiction? Oh, I know they weren’t real, but then again, is love? If evolution is our preferred understanding of the human story, why can’t we evolve ourselves out of this primal Achilles’ heel we know as love? And don’t give me this thing about the propagation of the species. Love isn’t necessary for reproduction – just sex is. All you need is attraction, not emotion…If intimacy is only about attraction, we could just keep lust and dispense with love. But it just won’t go away. – Erwin McManus**

When I first read this, I stopped and went through it again. And then a third time. Yeah. Why do we crave love? Why do I want to be known so deeply, to know someone and trust them and be trustworthy?

It is not enough for me to be kind of cool, or for me to have had a moment or two of meaningful connection. I want it to go on. I stress over relational disharmony, I crave connection – not just a physical connection, but a deep emotional bond of being known and being wanted.

**All of us long to become something more than we are. We are driven to achieve, moved to accomplish, fueled by ambition. It burns hotter in some than in others, but it is within all of us. We’re all searching for our unique purpose, our divine destiny, or simply a sense of significance or some measure of success…all of us are united in our desperate attempt to make a future for ourselves. We all desperately want to achieve something, to accomplish something; we just don’t know what. Worse than that, we don’t even understand why. Yet that doesn’t stop us from searching. – Erwin McManus**

It’s true, I think to myself. I do want to achieve. I don’t know what exactly, but something. I don’t want to sit here in anonymity for the rest of my life. But why? I could get by, I’m sure. Why wouldn’t that be enough?

Have you ever thought about this? What drives us to do, to accomplish? Why do we want to make the world a better place – for myself at least, if not for others? Where does our creative urge come from, and why are we not content to be spoon-fed for the rest of our lives?

This may be a jump for some, but Erwin and I both think it has to do with God. Not God who sits in a palace and points his lightning-trident at anyone he catches doing wrong, but God who loves us and created us with purpose and creativity. God who created us with the hope that we would do good and not harm.

**Remember this, what can settle your mind will not settle your soul. It will stir it up. You are a unique creation made by God to live and not simply exist. Your soul longs to find its ultimate purpose. It will not rest until you do. Your soul craves its destiny. Your soul desires. It always will. You were created as a creative being. You were made to grow, to dream, to achieve. Your soul is letting you know you come from God and your life is intended to be God-sized and God-inspired. – Erwin McManus**

But God is a stretch. Is God real? Why should I believe in God? Scientifically, he can’t be proven. Rationally, he can’t be boxed into a neat little passage. Not only that, but why believe in something I’ve never experienced? Why believe the word of people I don’t know if I trust?

Trust. We may not realize it, but what we believe to be true (and I’m not just talking about God) is directly tied to who we think we can trust. I doubt the truth in political ads because I have little trust for politicians. I know the motives of the credit card offers I often get, so I don’t believe that there are no hidden catches. Truth is tied to trust. We will not believe someone we do not trust, and we do not trust easily.

At least, we like to think so. But if we break it down, there are many things we trust without as much as a backward glance.

I trust the laws of the universe that say the sun will rise tomorrow. I trust that the ozone layer will not be depleted in the next half hour and I will continue to breathe without any problems. I trust that my pay cheque will be deposited in my account on Friday as my employers have promised. I trust that my chair will continue to hold me up, and I trust that my mom loves me even if she doesn’t say so every day.

So why don’t we trust God, or even the people who say they trust God?

For a lot of people, the answer is one word: Religion. Capital-R, organized, hierarchical, power-structure Religion.

**If you stepped into a toxic religious environment, you were right to run, even if Jesus’ name was attached to it. And by the way, when you did that, you weren’t running farther from Jesus but closer to him. You just have to be careful not to come to the tragic conclusion that just because you’ve experienced something that was false and maybe even toxic, there is nothing that is good. Even when you find yourself frustrated, even when you feel that you’ve been duped or deceived, even when you think something is true and later discover it is false, you should take solace in this; something inside you knows the difference.

Something within you not only compels you to search for truth, but has a soul reaction to it. – Erwin McManus**

Jesus and Religion aren’t synonymous. Jesus and God are. Jesus and Truth are. Jesus and Trust are.

I know I’m not pulling out big empirical proofs for God’s existence. I don’t intend on it, and neither does Erwin’s book. But what we are both saying, if you’re still with me, is this:

Humanity is a profound mystery. We share desires that are universal, yet unique to our species. Where do they come from? What is their origin? To find this out, we have to know ourselves. As we explore our souls, we find echoes and traces of something bigger than ourselves. We find traces of the source of these cravings for intimacy, destiny, meaning. To find these cravings fulfilled, we have to seek the Source. We have to find God.

If it’s a part of our make-up, it has to have a source. Like looking at the Mona Lisa makes us aware that there’s a painter, so our intricacies point to something bigger. And there’s a Source, then he will have the answers. He will know why and how and what it is exactly that we can’t understand, even after staring for hours at a canvas, even after days of solitude and soul-reflection.

The most life-changing and illuminating decision I ever made was to choose to trust God. To take as truth that Jesus is the Source of all that I am and that He has all the answers. Not only that, but that He is the answer.

**I thought for a while that God could meet my needs and stop my soul cravings. Now I know that isn’t the case.

My soul doesn’t crave something from God; my soul craves God. And by the way, so does yours.

That’s why everything else will leave you unsatisfied in the end. But don’t let this frustrate you; just let it fuel you. – Erwin McManus**

If you’re like me and something in you says, Maybe he’s right … then let me offer this invitation:

Look inside. Ask your soul what’s going on. Read the rest of Soul Cravings for yourself. Find someone who loves Jesus, and start talking about the things that matter most.

**Maybe you can’t prove God in a tube, but you can find him in your soul. When he’s missing, you can feel it in your gut. – Erwin McManus**

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