Our desire to be understood runs deep. We want to know someone else gets us, sees the world as we do, and can understand why we think, feel, and act the way we do. And we’re prone to become quite desperate and lonely without this.
Of course, we understand our uniqueness and that others can only walk with us so far. Even in the best of human relationships a loneliness remains that only God himself can fulfill.
All the same, we still desire for others to fill in this gap when they can.
For instance, when we’re having a good day we want others to celebrate with us – to understand why we’re happy and to share with us in this joy. And when we’re having a bad day we long for others to understand our grief and to not quickly dismiss it.
Likewise, God might have placed deep desires in our heart that don’t always make sense from a human perspective. And perhaps even more than simply acknowledging these desires, we want someone to understand what it’s like to wrestle with the weight and burden of these deep and mysterious movements of the heart.
Because this desire runs so deep it can be hard to resist people and places that seem to get us. And when we’re not careful this can drive us into many dark places and relationships.
This is not to kill our desire to be known, but rather to be wise in what we do with this desire.
And we might cover a lot of ground by first simply taking the time to better understand ourselves and to courageously share our deep heart with our trusted others.
Some still won’t get us. And we can grieve this loss as we keep our eyes focused on God who does see and understand, and who will provide for the needs of our heart.
To be sure, the human soul longs to be understood. Stay curious in knowing yourself and each other – tempering a bit more of the loneliness we all experience.
Photo by Sebastian Pociecha on Unsplash
