The Truest Thing About You
My two best friends and I all have birthdays around the same time of the year, and over the years one of the rhythms that we have established around this time is going around and saying our favorite memories from the past year and listing off some of the things that we are most hopeful for in the year to come. This has been an important practice for us because each year has brought so many different blessings and challenges. Looking back on our memories allows us to see just how much we’ve grown, both individually and separately. Looking forward to the next year is when we can acknowledge that some of our best memories are still to come.
In our families, our communities, our church, our nation and our world, this is the time of both reflection and looking forward. This is one of our last opportunities to be really honest with ourselves before God before the end of 2020. We are waiting in eager anticipation for this upcoming year with great expectation and hope.
In Luke 22, we find two people who have been waiting in eager anticipation to encounter the Messiah, who we just celebrated at Christmas. In this passage, we’re introduced to a righteous and devout man named Simeon and a prophet named Anna. If we pay attention to the way Simeon and Anna are described, we notice that really their only significant characteristics are their desires and longings. We see that Simeon has longed for God’s promise to him to be fulfilled, that he would get a brief glimpse of the Messiah who would bring a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to God’s people Israel. We know that the prophet Anna worshipped and fasted at the temple every single day. Her age indicates decades of devotion to God and longing to encounter the child who would bring redemption.
Right now, in the year 2020, what is it about Simeon and Anna that resonates? Why is this moment in the temple so monumental to our faith and our understanding of who Jesus is?
The answer is this, we experience the same desires and longings that Simeon and Anna experienced 2000 years ago. The same Holy Spirit who stirred their souls in the temple that day awakens us with eager expectation for the redemptive power of Jesus Christ in our lives and in the world.
Whatever this year has been for you, whatever has been stripped away, whatever you hope for in the new year, I believe that God has honored our desires, longings, and needs since the beginning of time through Jesus, who sustains us in both times of normalcy and uncertainty.
In her book Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton claims that “your desire for more of God than you have right now, your longing for love, your need for deeper levels of spiritual transformation than you have experienced so far is the truest thing about you.”
Think about this for a moment. What are your true longings and desires?
For Simeon and Anna, it something new. It was something to redeem. It was something to heal and to restore. And God honored God’s promise with the redemptive power of Jesus Christ in their lives and in the world.
Simeon and Anna had honored God by arranging the rhythms and routines of their lives for spiritual transformation, and in turn, they were seen and known by God. This is a story about how God honored their longings, desires, and needs. God fulfilled Simeon and Anna’s expectations (for newness, for redemption, and for restoration) through Jesus. And their brief encounter with the newborn King was enough for them to shout for joy and to spread the news far and wide. Every time a person cries out to God, it is a reminder that God continues to fulfill God’s promise to turn slaves into children and heirs of kingdom.
This is the good news: Just as God honored Simeon and Anna, God will honor your desires, your longing, your needs.
We know that Simeon and Anna were righteous people and wholly devoted to God. They were content, but not complacent. Anna worshipped and fasted in the temple day by day. Simeon actively listened to the Holy Spirit and acted when the Spirit guided him into the temple that day. They were active participants in the narrative of the good news of great joy for all people.
When we draw near to God, we feel a stirring of our souls that sustains us. And oftentimes we feel that deep inside of our bodies. The Holy Spirit unlocks something inside of us that often feels too powerful for words. If we are attentive and alert to the movement of the Holy Spirit inside of us, we begin to experience God’s unending mystery through spiritual transformation. This requires active listening.
What can we learn from this chipping away that we have experienced? Maybe it’s that we need to pay closer attention to our desires and longings.
Where do you feel God stirring your soul?
Where is God meeting you in your truest desires and longings?
Jesus has gone before us into this new year. The promise of Christ is that the year 2020 does not get the final word. All of the heaviness that we have felt this year—our grief, anger, frustrations, depression, and shame—have been covered in grace that sustains us so that we can cling to the promise of Christ. God sees, hears, and honors your longings. Know that God is calling us back to the imperishable truth that Jesus has gone before us to bring light and hope into this new year and into the spaces we need it the most.