"It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither."
"Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all--One reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognise it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promises. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy."
"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. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."
Quotes from the Chapter "Hope" in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
I think in my own life I most recognize the "real want for Heaven" when I hear beautiful music. Sometimes music will awaken in me a desire, or longing that I know cannot be fulfilled on earth. It gives me the desire to make beautiful music myself to awake in others the longing for something more.
I will probably never be a musician. Sometimes I think I would like to be a writer, but I struggle with my motivation. Do I want to be a writer to win the accalades and praise of men? If that is the reason, then I pray I will never have success. Lately the thought has come to me that maybe by writing I could awaken in others a desire or longing for Heaven. I cannot do this through music, I don't have the talent, but maybe I could use words to point others to Jesus.
At this point I must make a disclaimer: As romantic as that last paragraph sounds (at least to me), I may not have the talent to be a writer either! In that case, I hope the talents I have been given can be used to point others to Christ in some small way. I may never awaken in another the longing for Heaven, but maybe I can at least help them discover those longings hidden in their own heart.
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