What We Want and What We Need (Always More)

It’s a chilly evening in August. The windows are open to let in the cool air, and I can hear the gentle susurration of the rain on the grass. School supplies dominate one corner of the room. My wife asks, “When does your next class start?”

I think for a moment. “Week after next. Wait—no. Next week.” Already?

I say prayers with the boys and tuck them into bed, and I’m led to pray that these last few days of summer are fun, restful, and help their hearts prepare for another school year. Summer is almost over. My boys are fortunate – summer has already ended for many of their peers.

But even if their summer is a little longer, it’s not long enough. Sure, I’m a dad, I can see my kids need the structure and activity of school, and I need the normalcy of a stable schedule as well. But there’s this pang inside at the ending of summer, this longing to return to the start of June and relive these halcyon days of warm weather and travel and fireworks and the sound of crickets and frogs floating through the windows.

What is this longing?

Is it just the coming winter? Truly, three months can fly so quickly from June to August, and creep so slowly from January to March. Is it the drudgery? Nine months of daily school drop-offs and evening activities and weeks and weeks until Christmas.

Is it that I miss the excitement of our summer vacations?

On our last day at Disney, I had the overwhelming feeling that there was so much more to do, so much I had not done, so much I wish I had time to enjoy. But my time was out. Disney does a fantastic job of giving you reasons to come back.

In July we went to Mexico to serve at a mission. In past years, we spent two weeks, but this year we could only give one. It felt like it was over before it began. There were people I didn’t see. Food I didn’t eat. Conversations yet to be had. I ran out of time.

My boys went to summer camp, but unlike past years, I didn’t have the time to go and volunteer myself there. My son and I went out of town for a couple days while I was presenting, and we had just a little while to explore and spend time together. But it ended. Not enough time.

What is this longing?

In the words of Andrew Peterson, we are “children of eternity on the run from entropy.” Our hearts long for something more than summer vacation.  They long for a better rest than a three-month reprieve. They long for peace and comfort more lasting than a week-long trip.

We need a Sabbath rest that doesn’t have a return to labor on the other side.

The Teacher called out, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). But those who have answered that call have found that following him can feel like anything but rest. It can feel like struggle. It can feel like labor. But that same Teacher said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). The rest he offers, whatever it is, is not immediate freedom from this difficult life. In fact, it can be even harder when we say no to the world and instead seek his kingdom. “But take heart,” the Teacher went on. “I have overcome the world.”

This longing inside us, this wanting more, it drives us toward the kingdom that is to come. It reminds us that this life is not our final destiny. It gives us a reason to struggle for the kingdom, and to cling to Jesus. We have an eternal destiny. An eternal home. A day is coming when we will wake up to light brighter than the sun and a world more perfect than anything we have known. And while at Disney it may feel like there’s always more to see and do, the reality is even the pleasures of Disney can be exhausted.

But not the world to come. In that life, there will always be more. Forever.

Check out Andrew Peterson’s song “Day by Day” to inspire your thoughts about our eternal future: