My hearts longing ...

Wednesday, Jan 8, 2014. What is it your heart longs for? Do you know? How do you know? How do you realize? How do you find out?

Who am I? …

It is not so trivial to find out, who you really are. Are you one of the images you are having about yourself? Are you, what you think, or perhaps different? Are you as weak as you think? Are you as fearful as you think? Are you as strong as you think? Often, we have ideas about ourselves (and about others), but they do not fully fit. They capture only a part of what we are - and sometimes the part is quite small.

Another question, strongly linked to the question of “who I am” is “what can I achieve” or “what path can I go”? If I am strong, I might be able to go a way which requires strength. But it could well happen, that quickly I realize that I do not have the right type of strength, to go that way. Perhaps I am not independent enough? Perhaps I am not made to live in an environment which is too competitive or too biting.

But the key questions are one layer deeper. The questions are on the level: what is it my heart longs for. Does it long for acknowledgement? Does it long for love? Does it long for community? What type of acknowledgement? What type of community? What type of love? Does it long for truth, and am I able to capture the truth? Do I know the full problem with truth, how difficult it is to be communicated and captured?

There is a treasure hidden …

The biblical book of Proverbs speaks about wisdom, which touches all the questions we have just phrased. It is a wisdom which is linked to the Lord:

1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2, 1-5)

Understanding is a tricky thing. Those who have searched it for a long time, know this. Truth is not easy. Even scientific theories barely capture the truth, they are often rough approximations to small parts of reality. We need a truth which is much better and deeper, which contains science, but superseeds it by far. We need wisdom in the biblical sense … to find the source of life!

And truth cannot be separated from life. It cannot be separated from our actions (and emotions). It cannot be separated from personality. In the New Testament Jesus says “I am the truth”. Truth is a person. Truth is more than an abstract statement. We need to keep this in mind, when we move on … ! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts