C.S. Lewis’ Argument from Joy (Satisfaction)

Have you ever had a longing in your heart for something that you could not quite put your finger on? That is, have you ever had the thought, “I know that there is more to life than this.” All of us have had times in which we wait anxiously for the fulfillment of some unmet desire. This might be drinking some cold, ice water after a long run in the summer heat. Or maybe this has been finally closing your eyes to sleep after finishing the last page of that textbook. Maybe it has been finally getting to meet that friend you feel like you’ve known your whole life or finally accomplishing that goal you have been struggling towards. We each know what it means to desire something and then have that desire met. Sadly, however, most of us also know what it’s like to get what we think is our key to a life of satisfaction and realize that it has only left us empty. That new outfit that we thought would give us the self-confidence we needed just left us more hopeless in our search for fulfillment. Maybe that trip that we had looked forward to for months came and went with seemingly no meaning at all. Even in the moments when the cold water satisfies our thirst or that warm bed lulls us to sleep, we each know that that satisfaction is only temporary. It seems that each of us has a longing inside for lasting joy that we are trying to satisfy but cannot quite do it. What is it that we are looking for?

            C.S. Lewis thought a lot about this inward desire for ultimate satisfaction (joy) and argued that it is actually something that we can look towards as an indication of the existence of God. Whenever he was an atheist, C.S. Lewis found it very odd that most people have this longing for ultimate satisfaction but are never able to fully attain it. Where did this longing come from, and why is it here if it cannot be satisfied? As he thought through the meaning of this and later became a Christian, C.S. Lewis realized that this longing in our hearts is an indication that this world is not all that there is. If it were, then why do we desire something that it cannot supply? He notes,

“A man’s physical hunger does not prove that that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some [people] will.”[1]

            Although many have a very tricky time making any sense of why they have this desire for a joy that they cannot satisfy, the Bible gives us the grid that we need to understand it. It tells us that this world does not satisfy us fully because something has gone terribly wrong within it. Although God created a good world (Gen. 1-2), mankind rebelled against Him and brought brokenness into it (Gen. 3). God, our Creator, is the only One who can satisfy us, but each of us has turned away from Him and the life that He calls us to live (Rom. 3:23). There is coming a day, however, when God will make the world new and will do away with all evil, brokenness, and sin. For those who have put their faith in Christ, all suffering will give way to flourishing, and our relationship with God will be perfected. This is the life that Jesus promised during His famous encounter with the woman at the well in John 4. He told her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:13b-14, NASB).

Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1975.