The Soul-Itch

The Soul-Itch:

Prior to being blessed by God with the gift of faith, I wondered...

I wondered, “Why do we long for justice?”

I wondered, “Why do we expect things to be different?”

I wondered, “Why the discrepancy between ‘is’ and ‘ought to be’?”

I wondered, “Why do I long for ETERNAL things?”

Atheists will tell you it is because “those kinds” of longings and “fantasies” ultimately reveal weakness of mind, holes in personal character, and are invariably crutches for those who “can’t handle reality.”

Both Douglas Wilson’s short book (86 quick pages), The Deluded Atheist, and Ravi Zacharias’ quick read (125 pages), The End of Reason, do excellent work of addressing these issues in great detail, and in very engaging & digestible fashions, if you want to read more.

Why do we long for eternal things? Why do write poems, sing songs, film movies, and talk about “What’s next?” Why do we tell people “He’s in a better place” when they lose a loved one?

The reason is readily found in…

You guessed it: The Bible.

In Ecclesiastes (Old Testament: between Proverbs and Song of Songs) we come to chapter 3 and read:

1 There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7  a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what Elohim/God has done from beginning to end.

When we come to v.11 we find the answer to that internal longing, pining, wondering, and soul-itch we cannot scratch with anything of this world. “He has also set eternity in the human heart.”

C.S. Lewis said it this way, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

We were wired for eternity in the presence of God. We were originally blessed with the gift of free will - the ability to choose God over everything else - but we chose autonomy, i.e. death, instead, despite God’s clear and undeniable admonition (Gen 2:17).

From the time of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from PARADISE, i.e. God’s presence, there has been no such thing as free will. We lost the ability to “choose God” to “do good” or to “live right.”

The in 51:5 the Psalmist wrote, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” We are not born into this world pure and spotless. We are conceived in sin and born into a prison of corruption, blasphemy, and depraved wretchedness in the eyes of God. There is no manner of religion, philanthropy, meditation, beneficence, compassion, or magnanimity we can absorb, partake in, or mete out that resolves the intrinsic dilemma of our reprobate and systemic turpitude/villainy.

Romans 14:23 tells us, “...and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

Since faith in God is neither something we inherit at conception, not something we acquire at birth, not something we assimilate culturally, decide rationally, nor procure religiously, but rather some that we are gifted with TRANSCENDENTLY - God has graciously wired us with an affinity for eternity and thus for Himself.

David’s son, Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, was so wealthy he made the world’s wealthiest people of today look like homeless street kids. In 1 Kings 10 we read, “26 Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills…” Then in chapter 11 we read, “3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines…” Despite all of this, Solomon begins the book of Ecclesiastes with:

“14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind…”

Toward the end of Ecclesiastes (chapter 9) Solomon penned his profound realization, “3 The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. 4 Anyone who is among the living has hope...”

What is that hope?

Solomon concludes in chapter 12:

“1 Remember your Creator... 6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns for judgment to God who gave it.”

God wired us for eternity, commUNITY, and Himself. He put that insatiable soul-itch in our hearts, because as Paul wrote in Ephesians, “in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

He gave us that soul-itch so that we could recognize the utter depravity and hopelessness of our condition and call out to God Almighty to rescue, redeem, and restore us.

Stop for a moment and be still…  Feel it?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley