New Church Life July/August 2017 | Page 9

 burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” (BMH) religious feelings: contentment When our natural needs and desires are met we have a sense of natural satisfaction and contentment, but since we are essentially spiritual beings, created for life in heaven, we also yearn for a deeper and more lasting kind of contentment that no worldly success or possessions can provide. The longing of the soul for spiritual good and truth may be less urgently felt than the more immediate needs and wishes of the moment, but it is more essential. It is what sets humans apart from animals. The reality of heaven may be denied intellectually, but the longing for it cannot be so easily turned off. An obvious example is the natural skepticism about the possibility of lasting happiness in marriage. This skepticism is common and often expressed, and yet hope for a happy marriage “springs eternal in the human breast.” The spiritual reality that keeps rekindling that hope is greater than all the natural evidence (of which there is indeed an abundance) that suggests it is a vain and unrealistic hope. What is vain is the expectation that true peace of mind can ever be found apart from God. “You have made us for Yourself,” Augustine wrote, “and our hearts are rest-less till they find their rest in you.” And we have this promise from the Lord: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29) We are conjoined with the Lord, we take His yoke upon us, by shunning evils and living a life of charity and use, as He teaches us in His Word. This also joins us with other people who are on a similar path of life. This is what makes heaven: being conjoined with the Lord and with our neighbors. “Man is not born for himself, but for the sake of others; that is, he is not born to live for himself alone, but for others.” (True Christian Religion 406) But here is the strange paradox of human life: we are born for the sake of others, not ourselves; but we are born into the loves of self and the world, and are thus naturally inclined to live for ourselves and seek our own happiness above that of others. How can we get out of this predicament? The answer, of course, is that we must be “born again,” as the Lord said. It is only by means of this new, spiritual birth (“regeneration”) that our ultimate destiny – heaven – can be attained. And the deep and enduring feeling of contentment that only the life of heaven holds. (WEO) 279