The Hope of Easterናሙና

Finding Joy in Longing

If we look forward to something we don’t have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently. -Romans 8:25

Author Susan Cain’s research revealed that people played the happy songs on their playlists an average of 175 times but the sad songs 800 times. What is it about sad music that’s so compelling for many?

Cain suggests it has to do with our hunger for longing—“joy that’s laced with sorrow. Which is often triggered when we experience something so exquisite that it seems to come to us from some other world. . . . Except it only lasts a moment, and we really want to live there for good.”

Longing, Cain argues, is inseparable from passion and love, for “the place you suffer is the exact same place where you care desperately.” So instead of fearing our pain, Cain suggests that our longing can point us “in the direction of the sacred.”

Cain’s insights remind me of how Paul describes how “the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay” (Romans 8:21). While Jesus has already defeated sin and death, we still wait for His victory to be seen in its fullness in all of creation.

That day isn’t here yet. We live in hope, and “if we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it” (v. 24). But as we wait, we experience joy and hope in the longing, as the Spirit carries and strengthens us in God’s love (vv. 26-27, 39).

Monica La Rose

When have you experienced joy and sorrow simultaneously? How can longing connect us to hope?

Precious Father, thank You for filling my heart with longing for You and the beauty of Your kingdom. Help that hope to anchor my heart.