02.20.07 Restless Hearts

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=220 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="13eb8750.jpg" border=0 width="184" height="117" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>"We, who have received the love of Christ through the Spirit must not contain it..."</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMMUSA)"><U>Home Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tuesdays Reflection"><U>Tuesdays Reflection</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mission Statement"><U>Mission Statement</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id215.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vision Statement"><U>Vision Statement</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ways You Can Help Us"><U>Ways You Can Help Us</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All About VMM"><U>All About VMM</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Application Qualifications"><U>Application Qualifications</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Discernment Process"><U>Discernment Process</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="application.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Application Form"><U>Application Form</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U>Related Links</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bridges Newsletter"><U>Bridges Newsletter</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Letters from the Missions"><U>Letters from the Missions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adobe Printing Instructions"><U>Adobe Printing Instructions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=36-3153581" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networ"><U><IMG SRC="1887e300.gif" border=0 width="126" height="48" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div>  <form method="get" action="http://search.atomz.com/search/"> <input size=15 name="sp-q"><br> <input type=submit value="Search"> <input type=hidden name="sp-a" value="sp10020180"> <input type=hidden name="sp-f" value="iso-8859-1"> </form></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM-USA)</B></I></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMMUSA)"><U>home</U></A></div> <bR> <div> 02.20.07                                             <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tuesdays Reflection"><U>Tuesdays Reflection</U></A></div> <bR> <div> "Restless Hearts Yearn for God" is the title of a short article a </div> <div> friend sent me quite a while back. In a outward-directed, goal- </div> <div> oriented world where there is an answer and a cure for everything, </div> <div> where all is attainable and results must come quickly, where we are </div> <div> bombarded with advertisement that assures us that our longings can be </div> <div> fully satisfied by plasma TVs, Toyota Tundras, and even odor-killing </div> <div> Breeze, the article seemed almost medieval.</div> <bR> <div> Today, we don't live with our restlessness. In Nicaragua, in 1992-95, </div> <div> I would sit down every two or three months and write a letter which a </div> <div> friend in Seattle would photocopy and mail to my friends,family and </div> <div> supporters in Canada and the USA. The letter represented weeks spent </div> <div> in the countryside, days and nights of "slow" living, the </div> <div> distillation of long thoughts. In 1994, e-mail arrived in Nicaragua </div> <div> and the next generation of Witness for Peace volunteers spent an hour </div> <div> or more a day "talking" to friends and family back in the USA. Now </div> <div> blogs make this instant spouting available to anyone. Some of the </div> <div> latest books I've read are obsolete before the first copy comes </div> <div> rolling out of the presses - oops, rolling out of whatever! They are </div> <div> not worth keeping and rereading.</div> <bR> <div> We are incomplete and nothing other than God can make us complete or </div> <div> as Augustine said over 1500 years ago: "You have made us for </div> <div> yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." </div> <div> It was that quote that struck me when I read the article. I had </div> <div> heard it often in high school. I sensed then that the teacher who oft </div> <div> repeated it lived this restlessness. She also taught us the "Hound of </div> <div> God" in literature. Restlessness was part of life. We couldn't get </div> <div> away from it.</div> <bR> <div> After over 50 years and dozens of self-help books to find one's self, </div> <div> it's the "old" that once again makes sense. We are incomplete and </div> <div> will always be. It's that incompleteness that fires us to life. </div> <div> Those "immortal longings" give us our immortality, our timelessness. </div> <div> Our longing is real, congenital, a holy restlessness put in us by God </div> <div> to push us towards the infinite. The insatiability of our hearts is a </div> <div> call to infinite love. Our symphonies are incomplete.</div> <bR> <div> Cecily</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>