Made for More

Like many of you, I have a bucket list.

And one of the items on my bucket list has been to attend a Coldplay concert.

Last night they were in Chicago and Kory and I were in attendance along with 20,000 plus others.

To say it was AMAZING is putting it mildly. Frankly to put the experience into words is near impossible.

Visually, Acoustically, everything was CRAZY good.

Since the concert ended, I've been wanting more and I have spent a good part of today trying to figure out why exactly I've felt so moved

One of my favorite quotes by C.S. Lewis came to mind. In Mere Christianity he says:

"... when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize 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 promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or think of some foreign country, [or listen to great music]...are longings which no marriage, no travel, [no music] 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... Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing."

Last night at the concert I felt that yearning again, that "suggestion of the real thing." It's kind of thrown my whole day off as I've processed the moment. I feel it often when I listen to Coldplay. I would guess that you feel it too.  Maybe with Coldplay or maybe not, but with whatever kind of music moves your soul. That desire for something more.

I was not made for this world. Most days I am immersed in the things of this life. But then a song plays, or I read something, or go to a concert and I feel that hunger. A craving that will never be filled in my lifetime. I can try to fill it with more music, or other good or bad things but I will only be frustrated when the temporary fix rubs off if I expect to keep the hunger pains at bay for long.

But, if I accept the longing, the ache and let it remind me of what is to come... then I can, as C.S. Lewis puts it, "make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."

Last night surrounded by thousands of people I had the thought of Heaven and what it would be like to be surrounded by people and music: amazing, soul-moving, gut-wrenching music, praising Jesus.

It is going to be Awesome.

Coldplay left me wanting more, but I believe the "more" I am really wanting will never be filled in this lifetime, the satisfaction and fullness I am looking for, is waiting for me in the next.