Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer. 2:12-13).

Have you ever stopped and thought about just how foolish we humans can be? Though the passage above was spoken about Israel, is it any less true of the rest of us? Most assuredly not. Before we get into why we are so foolish, let’s talk about one assumed fact in this passage:

Humans are thirsty.

All of us were created with built-in longings and desires. When God created humanity in His image, that included two specific longings:

• a longing for relationship. (We might also call this a longing for security.) God exists in an Eternal Community. Because humanity was created in His image, we long for relationship–with our creator and with other people. We long to be loved deeply and perfectly and to love in the same way.
• a longing for impact. (We might also call this a longing for significance or purpose.) God created Adam and Eve with a purpose: To rule over the earth and have dominion over it (Gen. 1:26, 28). We thirst to be a part of the eternal plan, to make a lasting difference in our world.

Since these are God-given longings, man is not condemned for his thirst. Let’s repeat that: It’s okay–even normal–to be thirsty. To be thirsty for those things is to be human. Where, then does the problem lie?

Forsaking the Source

The Lord told Jeremiah why humans are foolish. First, “they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters.” In their search to fill those deep longings, humans turn away from God, the true Satisfier of the soul.

Notice that God calls himself the fountain of living water. Do those words sound familiar? They should. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38). Jesus links Himself directly to the Father as the Source of that which will quench our thirst.

Why is this a problem? Aren’t there other ways that my longings for relationship and impact can be met? The short answer? No. We don’t have the resources within ourselves to fulfill those longings. Only the Lord Himself can give us true unconditional love and grant us the ability to make an eternal impact on our wold. So, to turn away from Him is like walking through a desert and turning away from the well in the midst of the most beautiful oasis.

Broken Cisterns

Not only do we turn away from the Source of that which will satisfy us most deeply, we start digging around in the sand to make our own cisterns! The Lord told Jeremiah, “[My people have] hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

The problem with our cisterns? They are broken. Why? Because we live in a fallen and broken world. No strategies that we set in place will fully give us what we need. We can find some temporary relief, to be sure. We turn to many things, even many “good” things, in our quest to not feel the ache of those unmet longings.

Unmet Longings, You Say?

Because we live in a fallen world, those two fundamental longings–relationship and impact–will never be perfectly fulfilled. “Doesn’t God already love us perfectly?” Yes, of course He does. But we don’t experience that perfect love here. No matter how much love we have experienced from God, there is yet more to come. Our experience of Christ on this earth is by faith, and sin hinders our full experience of Him anyhow. Those longings will remain, at best, imperfectly met until we are finally Home.

To be sure, we can and will experience both relationship and impact here in this life. Yet, while we are here, there will always be that nagging feeling, that ache in our soul, that something is just not right here.

“Gee, that doesn’t sound very encouraging!” At first thought, no, it doesn’t. On second thought, however, feeling that ache gives us the opportunity to, instead of running from the Lord and running to other things and people, turn to Him in dependence and trust. He’s given us a sure Hope that will experience Him fully. And until then, He has promised to never leave us or forsake us while we walk on our journey. And He will give us all we need to experience real true Joy in this life.