The Thing Behind the Thing

I leave my office everyday around 5pm and make the short walk to the Divy bike dock on the southwest corner of Belmont and Leavitt. Today, I left at 5:45. It was dark outside, nearly pitch black except for the street lights. The temperature was cool, but not cold. The air dry, but not windy. 

Often, I leave work and am hit with a wave of gratitude, and right behind that gratitude comes a wave of desire — I want something. I want something. What it is it that I want?

My office is located in a quaint little neighborhood called Roscoe Village. It’s tree-lined streets are filled with houses and families and a nostalgic sort of dream. A house, a car, and a family— that’s the thing I want, I think.

We’ve been praying for a condo to purchase sometime in the next couple of years. We’ve started saving and dreaming and planning and looking. We’ve got a laundry list of things we want that includes actual laundry (in-unit, of course!).  

I glance across the street at a row of three-story single-family homes and wonder— is a home what I really want? Or is there a thing behind the thing?

We recently met with a financial advisor to start doing some more intentional financial planning. During our first meeting, he wanted to get to know us a little better so he asked us why we were wanting to save for the things we were saving for and what goals we’d like to accomplish in the future. As we finished up our answer he said, “So it sounds like hospitality is important to you guys.”

Hospitality. That’s the thing behind the thing.

I want a house that’s full of people and extra beds that are nice and soft. I want a couch that seats eight and floors that creak when everyone walks down the hall. I want movie nights and blankets, dinner parties and casual hang outs in our sweats.

Hospitality. That’s the thing behind the thing.

Ruth Haley Barton writes in her book, Sacred Rhythms that “When we are in touch with our deepest longings (instead of of being completely distracted  by their surface manifestations), a whole different set of choices opens up...we are compelled to seek out ways of living that are congruent with our deepest longings. Sometimes this feels risky, and it often opens up a whole new set of questions…”

She continues: “There are desires in you that are so deep and so true and so connected to the essence of who you are; those are the desires {Jesus wants} to meet— not just partially, but abundantly.”

There’s always a thing behind the thing (and sometimes, a thing behind that thing). It takes courage to get there. It takes safety and vulnerability. It takes faith and it takes trust. 

It’s risky to touch that thing behind the thing, but once you’re able to, you’ll arrive at that sweet spot where contentment coexists with longing, and find that abundance lives there.

What’s your thing behind the thing?