“A Yearning”-
Out of the blue, suddenly, without my help a yearning comes over me. It could be a yearning for a car, or a home, a tool, something new to learn, a destination, etc. Where do yearnings come from? What are good yearnings and what are bad ones. Which one builds good results and which one tears down. Which ones are a lust and which ones are genuine?
Our beings are made up of spirit, soul and body. So where is the strong yearning that I have coming from? God speaks to us in different ways. When we are young, we all have a yearning, of who we will be in the future. We have yearnings to learn certain things. To do certain things, to hear things like music. Some have a strong desire to run. Erick Little, in the movie “The Chariots of Fire” said, “I feel God’s pleasure when I run”. It pleasures us when we do our special yearning. Some have a yearning to do things that take a lot of energy. As parents, it is our responsibility to watch children closely, recognize those special characteristics and yearnings and cultivate them, so the child will be the person God wants them to be as they grow up. In the world, we live in today, our Government and some doctors seem to think that our children should grow up to be a certain way regardless of their deep yearnings. There are thousands of young people on drugs that keep them from their desire to run.
A deep yearning is a strong calling to go in a certain direction, to obtain something, to learn something, to acquire something. The yearnings we are talking about do not come from the mind, they come from the spirit. The spirit is the organ God uses to speak to us. The mind just carries out the instruction in this case. The spirit doesn’t have to tell the mouth when to eat, the mind can do that. The body, or the stomach can be hungry and convey to the mouth, feed me and the mind can direct the body to cook something for the stomach.
Where we can run into trouble is when we get the yearnings mixed up and where they are coming from, the spirit, soul (mind) or body. The eyes, which are a body part can see something and tell the body to lust. When lust is full blown, it will go after that thing until it gets it, good or bad. The mind yearnings have a lot of agitation associated with them. We try to make them come about. When it doesn’t happen, we force it to. I am not talking about working hard in a yearning that we know is right and what we should be doing. I am talking about when we know something is not working and we double our efforts.
Now, when the spirit flings a yearning on us, as us southern boys would say, you can’t shake it. It is not a lust, it is not a, I’ll get it if it kills me kind of thing. It’s a very strong desire for it, but not a lust of the body. It is a, I expect to see it at any time, just around the next corner. You know this yearning could be for a toy, or something that is really needed, or something we don’t think we need or will ever use. Well, the yearning is for the future that we don’t know about. We only know now and what’s behind us. Only God knows the future and what we need to live it. Remember this also, even our pets love to play and we do too, so don’t think that we don’t need some toys to keep us happy, because we do. Sometime we can feel guilty about getting the thing we yearned for because we don’t think we deserve it. If God is the origin of your yearning there is no reason for the guilt. Guilt over a good thing can pervert what we learned in the yearning process. That is false guilt.
When I was young I had a yearning. I wanted to be either a preacher or a cook. Nobody knew that but me. I was a long time becoming the preacher because of false yearnings and I never could cook. I still have that yearning that overpowers all the others. But I, as well as all of you, have yearnings. We must weed out the false from the real and that takes wisdom. Much of God’s leading us through life comes in the form of yearnings. Just remember some we know that we need and some we don’t think we need, but God knows best. If we learn to recognize the good yearnings, we can fully enjoy the trip.
Before we moved to our land in Tennessee, Sharon and I both had the same strong yearning to be here. But we had to agree with God who placed the yearning in our spirits. When we did, everything fell in place for us to move. That was a big yearning, but there are many, many others, large and small. I’ll tell about a yearning that was flung on me a few weeks ago, now some of you may say, no way and some may laugh and some may say, yes. Now, you must know that us men love tools and toys. Some tool can be toys and some toys can be tools and some can be the same. That’s when it can be fun when they are both.
As I was saying, about two or three weeks ago, this thing came over me and it was just there. Some of us love to hunt as well as put meat on the table. It takes the right toy, oh, I mean tool, to get the job done. I got a tool for this job this past year. It is great for varmint’s that get after our chickens, but not for deer hunting, you know that meat on the table tool. This gun must be a tool because its ugly. I set it down in the barn one day and couldn’t find it when I got ready to leave because it looked like a rake. You must know that guns are beautiful with their black walnut stocks, now that’s a toy. Well this tool is an AR 15 and is the most amazing gun, I mean tool I have ever owned. I knew to hunt deer, I needed a larger caliber bullet. This tool is made in two parts, an upper barrel assembly and a lower trigger assembly. I had a strong yearning for a new 30 caliber upper assembly but in my mind, I knew I couldn’t afford one at the time, I thought. So, I called my buddy who can buy parts just to ask about the cost of a barrel, that was all. He said he would check and call me back. The next day he called and said he couldn’t get me a price because his computer was broken. I thought, oh well, that’s it. So, we started talking about deer hunting. He said he had killed more deer with a 22 magnum than any other gun he owned. I said, I like the 22 magnums also and that I had a Ruger 22 mag pistol. He said that sounds like a good deal. I said for who, me or you. He said well maybe both of us. He loves to barter by the way. He said “I have a 300 blackout (30 caliber) upper I might be willing to swap if we can come to an agreement on the pistol. I thought to myself, what, not just a barrel, but a complete upper, the very thing I yearned for. You know that thing that was flung on me. He then said, “Why don’t I bring it over and we can dicker”. Well you know the yearning left me and a sense of being overwhelmed and gratitude swept over me. He came over and we shot the guns, I mean tools, He was satisfied and loved the pistol and I loved my tool. We traded even. He was happy because he had always wanted one. And I danced around the living room in utter amazement of what had just happened. My yearning that God had flung on me was fulfilled and I was dumbfounded. My ugly gun, Oh, I mean tool, can now put meat on the table and my wife will be happy.
There are big yearnings and little ones. Needed ones and then there are toys, I mean tools. Yearnings are a special gift from God.
David McClary
Avoicefromthemountain.com
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