Unshackled Echo ~ February 22, 2019 ~ The Sacred Ache

It's hard to be satisfied sometimes. Depression, or at least melancholia, is a common by-product of discontent. Besides making us blue, discontent is dangerous, often driving us to pursue phantoms into the fog banks filled with obstacles, pit falls and threats both unforeseen and near impossible to avoid, once we enter. There's an ache that just whispers to us as we go through the motions of life that there is more. There is something else, or should be anyway.

We begin to think of what the ache means and how to make it go away. We instructively realize that it is something out of place and missing, but that's usually as much as our instincts can get it right. We think if only I had someone in my life, a partner/spouse then everything would be all right. I would be happy. If only my relationship were better everything would be all right. If only I had a job, or a better job, or got a raise or was recognized for what I contribute... If only I lived in a better...... If only....

Or we just try to fill it with things that numb us from the empty space. Sex, drugs, rock-n-roll or classical or jazz or alcohol or books or shopping or chocolate cake or whatever can distract us or make us feel different, at least for a while. But the truth is that the ache is good. It tells us that we need a savior, that we need God. And once we find relationship with out Creator, the return or echo of that ache reminds us that we are still not home, still not done. There is still work to be done, progress to made. It is a sacred ache, and there is only one balm that soothes it without negative side effects. Pursuing God, pushing closer, pressing into His presence, refusing to be satisfied with diluted and counterfeit substitutes for the only piece that fits the hole in the puzzle.

Jobs, relationships, acceptance from people, etc., are nice and nothing to throw away, but they are not the answer to the sacred ache. The truth is that job or no job, relationship or no relationship, etc. we can find freedom, a life worth living, contentment and joy, but it is found in something other than this realm with its curse. It is in the eternal sphere wrapped in the Eternal Loving God.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

April 7, 2016.

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