- We have not been taught or trained to do so. The entire focus of our education and development centers around this world and sets our minds mostly on what we see and know here on Earth.
- We don't always recognize the longing for heaven, even when it is present within our hearts. "Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise."
- The Fool's Way: "He puts the blame on the things themselves. He goes on all his life thinking that if only he tried another woman, or went for a more expensive holiday, or whatever it is, then, this time, he really would catch the mysterious something we are all after... always thinking that the latest is 'the Real Thing' at last, and always disappointed."
- The Way of the Disillusioned 'Sensible Man': He convinces himself that the whole pursuit of satisfaction or joy was just an exercise in futility, just something young people do until they settle down and learn to expect less. This is not necessarily a bad path and would be the best one to take if man did not have eternity to look forward to, "But supposing infinite happiness really is there, waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow's end? In that case it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our supposed 'common sense' we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it."
There is one other way of dealing with the disappointment and discontentment that life seems to bring... The Christian Way. The Christian believes that we "are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists." For each biological or natural desire we feel, there is some corresponding thing or act that will quench that desire and fulfill the need we have. Like the examples in the diagram to the right, we find that the desires we have point us to the things that will satisfy them. Which leads to this famous quote of Lewis's: |
So we should never take for granted or despise the earthly pleasures and blessings we have, but we should also never allow them to distract us or turn us away from the real goal: