Part 1 of 4 – Man’s Desire

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called Man's Desire.

I here paraphrase a thought taken from the writings of C.S. Lewis.

All Man’s physical desires have the possibility of fulfillment in this world,

The duck that desires to swim can have that desire fulfilled in the water available to him.

The man who desires to eat food has that desire fulfilled in food available to him.

The person who desires sex has that desire fulfilled by the act of sex in this world.

But, when a man has exhausted all that the world has to offer he realizes there is no likely possibility of quenching his deepest desire in this world. This then is evidence that man has a deeper need, and that man was probably made for another world.

For most of mankind there is a sense that something is obviously missing. Deep within everybody knows it and unconsciously they try and desire to fill the void. Yet, it’s a void that seems it can’t be filled.

  • Some try to find what is missing by the pursuit of and preoccupation with endless activities, going from this to that, pursuing physical pleasures, and the acquisition of many “things.” No matter how much we ratchet up our pursuits in this way – we still find something is missing. There may not be anything wrong in these pursuits, but they do not satisfy the inner longing needing to be satisfied.
  • Others give themselves to more education, hoping to find the answer.
  • Most simply plod along merely trying to hold their life together.

Within, the question remains. It is like a tune that cannot be forgotten, it comes again and again – the sense that there must be something more to life than this. Perhaps as you relax; and trying to sleep, the gnawing sense returns – an unquenched, unfulfilled, and yet unexplained desire - something must be missing.

Seeking to quench and satisfy this hunger within is the driving force in man, pushing him on from the time of his birth, usually leading him down many empty and blind alleys before he finds the truth and satisfaction. In the course of life we may search out so many things, proving that they do not actually satisfy our deepest longing; and that’s okay since most all of us will go wrong for quite some time before we find the answer.

Let’s now examine “man” further to understand the object of his unconscious seeking.

To himself, man is a mystery in the universe. Only man is so driven by something within. Animals live instinctually, but man has a deeper consciousness and hunger that drives him on. Although we know more about man now than ever before, his DNA, RNA, the human genome, cell structure, the working of the bodily organs, laws of physics. etc., most do not understand man’s innermost need.

We have basic questions than man’s science can answer…  What is man? Of what is he composed? Why does man exist?

Most philosophers, psychologists, and theologians, realize that man is not so simple. He is regarded as an entity with a dual nature, having the physical and the unseen metaphysical – man’s biological and psychological components. This is pretty much the extent of the common understanding of the fundamental make-up of man.

Yet still in the light of this degree of understanding we remain powerless to quench the feeling or sense of inner emptiness. For most, man remains to be a mystery. From where does this inner sense come?