The quote below resonated with me when I read it. I have felt a restlessness that has been difficult to explain.
In Philippians 4, Paul talks about learning to be content. I can see the wisdom in this, but how is that contentment to be obtained? To shrug my shoulders and say, “it is what it is” with resignation is not contentment.
To understand that the restlessness is hard-wired into us and can only find contentment in the eternal is to begin to be content. My contentment can only be found in pursuit of God. Thankfully, Jesus provides the way for us to find God and therefore find peace.
Here is the quote, I hope you also find it helpful:
If we were of the earth only and belonged to the beasts, we would never be disturbed. There would never be much trouble in the world at all if God had not put everlastingness in us. Without everlastingness in the soul, I do not believe a Hitler or a Stalin would have tried to conquer Europe. But because of God’s intentional design, there is in us an appreciation and a longing for the everlastingness of God. But we have lost it. We wish we had it, and we want it; and we are dissatisfied with anything less.
Man, like an eagle in a cage, owns the cage and then drops back and forth from one war to another war. He goes from one strike to another strike, from one gamble to another gamble, from one dance to another dance, from one hell to another hell. Why do men act this way? Why do men and women fight against each other and strive for supremacy?
The answer is quite simple. God has buried something deep within the soul of every man and woman. It is simply and profoundly a longing for immortality. Although men and women know that everybody dies, they never think that they will die. When death approaches, they fight this enemy with all that is in them. Why? Because of that sense of immortality that God breathed into them when He breathed into Adam and he became a living soul.
A. W. Tozer – And He Dwelt among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John