desire and fulfillment

By you I have desire; by you let me have fulfillment.

The substance of Buddha’s enlightenment was the message “All is Illusion.” This came to Buddha after meditating on the problem of suffering. Buddhists teach that suffering consists of the gap between desire and the fulfillment of desire. Therefore, they say, the key to end suffering is to extinguish desire. This is why they teach that “All is Illusion”. If All is Illusion, there is no reason to desire. “If we stop desiring illusions, we stop suffering,” they say.

Christians teach that God created all things because the Creator is a God of Desire. He created because he wanted to, not because he had to. He created for the sheer joy of it.

He did not create illusions; he created real things. He made us to dream so we could experience the joy of fulfilled dreams. C.S. Lewis says, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food…If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

I would hasten to add: we are made for more than just another world; we are made for another Person. We are made to be loved and to love. To extinguish desire is to commit spiritual suicide. It is the last thing you would ever want to do.

He redeemed us because of desire, too. His re-creative act in us is evidence of sheer desire, and he delights to work in us. It is not drudgery to him.

Nor should seeking his face be drudgery to us; it is desire-in-action and he grants us the compulsion to seek in the first place. Attend to your impulse—he put it there.

I will get up now and go; I will search for the one my heart loves. -Song of Songs 3:2