In the first chapter of his book, Plantinga writes about longing. Because we are fallen in sin, many of our desires are wicked. Our sinful flesh longs for those things that bring us further away from God and lead us to spiritual destruction. Not all of our longings are bad, however. In this chapter, Plantinga, while speaking of St. Augustine and C. S. Lewis, says that humans want God in their lives. God is behind all the good things that we yearn for in life, so while longing for something that will give us peace or comfort, we are really yearning for God. I found this idea very interesting, and I agree with Augustine and Lewis on this. As creations of God, we have a need and a longing for blessings from God, but underneath all of that is our Creator Himself. Deep down we know that the things of the world will do nothing for us and the spiritual gifts from God are the only things that can truly give us joy.
Because this desire for God is so great, we can never achieve complete satisfaction during our earthly lives. We are not capable of understanding God’s greatness and love for us, and during our earthly lives we can’t fully receive all His blessings that He has showered upon us. Plantinga brings up this point of humans never having complete satisfaction in their lives. We can be content with our lives, but we know that there is more to come. Even during our happiest moments, we are on the lookout for when something bad will come and ruin it. Many of the things that we long for in our human lives cannot be fulfilled, and even if we do obtain them, we won’t be completely satisfied. Until we reach eternal glory with God in heaven, we will never be free of longing because our lives can’t be perfect while they are contaminated with sin.
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