You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”

*St. Augustine. The Confessions.

A man visited an Abbot at the monastery. The man was agnostic. He asked, “Father, why is it that you serve God with such apparent zeal and giving up all, when you could be doing something else and enjoying life and pleasures among others?”

The Abbot said, “Friend, let us imagine a cup.” “Okay.” “A potter shaped the cup. He not only formed the cup, but created it out of his own mind and being. The potter imbued it with a desire only to be filled with coffee.” “Okay.”

“Well, someone buys the cup and uses it for tea. But the cup desires only coffee.” “Yes.”

Asked the Abbot, “What will the cup feel like?”

“Frustrated.” “Yes, and there you have the condition of the human being. They were created by, out of, and for God, to desire only God and the right ordering of all in God, Who is Love, and thus is seen as logical both the pervasive suffering and insatiable yearning.” “I see.”

“Yet, what if the cup could speak, and said, 'Please fill me with milk'? Would that satisfy the cup?” The agnostic replied, “No.”

“So, you see the human condition clearly?” “Yes, the human is always seeking only one thing, regardless of what is sought.”

“Yes, and that is why I serve only God, and deny myself so much of what you call pleasure.”

*Story by Brian Kenneth Wilcox

The Yearning for our Source is always within us, for we are made from and of the Source. This is like a drop of the Sea, looking for the Sea. Whatever the drop does, even if it takes her farther from the Sea, is a seeking for the Sea.

Here, we find our temptation to disordered loves. This is loves, some right, some harmful, yet out of proper order. We cannot find the Fullness of our Source in anything other than the Source. This is a reason romantic love disappoints all of us, at some time. Most of us have sought in our love or beloved the meeting of the Yearning we both have for Love. Nothing is harmful about deeply loving another person; the problem arises when we project our Yearning for our Source onto that other human being. That is disordered love.

The same could be with a career. Persons fall in love with a career. They become identified with the job. Yet, that extent of devotion is meant only for the Divine. That is disordered love. The person will always feel a measure of dis-ease by such misplaced Yearning.

Our Yearning leads us back, when rightly ordered, to the Source, God-Goddess. Then, other loves are in relationship to that Center. Then, we can share with others the Love of the One, and they with us. We can even enjoy a sexual union in which each sees the love as an expression of the Divine Love, and a means to Love the Source, Love.

Richard J. Foster and Gayle Beebe, Longing for God, posit the question: “And why does this longing seem so dormant today?” Their response: “In a word, distraction.” Yes, we easily are distracted from the one thing that most matters, the Love sourcing ourselves and all loves. The spiritual path, of whatever faith, is a means to refocus in a rightly ordered Loving, and heal the distraction, so our Longing can find blissful, maturing fruition in God-Goddess.

This rightly ordered Loving, not following the temptation to distraction, is set forth in the Shema (“Hear”) of the Jewish tradition, found in Deuteronomy 6.4-9. This begins: “Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is One.” Or, another way of rendering: “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” The singularity of devotion, of love, is present. This is amplified later: “And you shall Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” This is rightly ordered Love, and is central to the human condition, and any faith or spiritual path.