our daily bread

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Dexu Xia

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Nov 26, 2017, 2:43:38 AM11/26/17

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The Heart’s True Home

[God] has . . . set eternity in the human heart. Ecclesiastes 3:11

We had a West Highland Terrier for a number of years. “Westies” are tough little dogs, bred to tunnel into badger holes and engage the “enemy” in its lair. Our Westie was many generations removed from her origins, but she still retained that instinct, put into her through years of breeding. On one occasion she became obsessed by some “critter” under a rock in our backyard. Nothing could dissuade her. She dug and dug until she tunneled several feet under the rock.

Now consider this question: Why do we as humans pursue, pursue, pursue? Why must we climb unclimbed mountains, ski near-vertical slopes? Run the most difficult and dangerous rapids, challenge the forces of nature? Part of it is a desire for adventure and enjoyment, but it’s much more. It’s an instinct for God that has been implanted in us. We cannot not want to find God.

Beneath all our longings is a deep desire for God.

We don’t know that, of course. We only know that we long for something. “You don’t know what it is you want,” Mark Twain said, “but you want it so much you could almost die.”

God is our heart’s true home. As church father Augustine said in that most famous quotation: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

And what is the heart? A deep void within us that only God can fill.

Help me, Lord, to recognize my deep longing for You. Then fill me with the knowledge of You. Draw me near.

Beneath all our longings is a deep desire for God.

安歇之所

上帝……将永生安置在世人心里。-传道书3章11节

多年来，我们饲养了一只西高地小猎犬，这种猎犬小而精悍，善于刨挖地道、直捣獾的洞穴，将獾逮个正着。我们的小猎犬虽然已远离正统血源，但它深植的本能却丝毫未减。有一次，它被我们后院石头下的“小东西”给吸引住了，就一心要找到它，任谁也阻止不了它。它拼命在石头下方不断地挖啊挖的，甚至挖出一条几公尺长的地道。

试想：我们人类为何也会不断地追寻呢？为何我们总想攻克尚未攀登的山岭、在几近垂直的陡坡上滑雪？为何要越过最艰险的急湍，挑战大自然的威力？其中一个原因，或许是我们渴望追求冒险与刺激，但却不仅如此。那是上帝深植在我们内心的本能，使我们不得不渴望追寻祂。当然，我们对此一无所知，只知道自己总是不断在追寻。马克吐温说：“你不知道自己要的是什么，但你会为了心中的渴求，不惜付上生命的代价。”

上帝才是我们心灵真正的安歇之所。就如人们常引用教父奥古斯丁所说的那句话：“主啊，祢为自己造了我们，我们的心除非在祢里面，否则永无安息。”什么能满足我们的心呢？你我心中的空洞，唯有上帝才能填满。

主啊，求祢让我看见，祢才是我心所切慕的。
恳求祢让我更认识祢，使我与祢更亲近。