Recently, I started going to the gym again after a few years off—becoming a parent can disrupt the best of intentions. While I felt a bit intimidated to start going again, I’ve really enjoyed adding it back into my rhythm. My body feels stiffer and sorer than it used to, but at the same time, I’m making progress and loving the challenge.

One side effect I had forgotten about when adding a large amount of exercise into my routine is how hungry it can make me. I like to eat a lot normally and have to use great self-control to eat regular human amounts of food, but exercising a lot just seems to make me ravenous. I feel as though I could eat endlessly and not bat an eye—though anyone watching me, no doubt, would.

The science behind it seems simple enough to me. Your body burns more energy exercising in addition to the energy needed to fuel your regular daily habits, so it fuels the desire to acquire more energy from food to maintain the cycle; more energy out requires more energy in. For most people, if you get more energy out than in, you will probably lose weight because your body burns off the reserves to fuel its functions. If you put in more energy than you put out, your body will stockpile it to increase your reserves.

the power of desire

The problem with our modern culture is that many of us follow our desire, taking in more than we put out and ending up with a stockpile of reserves we don’t really need. This doesn’t just go for food, though. Humanity seems to have a built-in disposition toward hoarding more than we really need. Look at how many homes have two-car garages, yet both cars are parked in front because the entire garage is full of stuff! Greed and fear often drive people to continue amassing more and more because they feel they never have enough—and if they don’t get it, someone else will.

It goes the same with money. When asked, “How much is enough?” the answer is usually something along the lines o “just a bit more.” It doesn’t seem to matter if someone is struggling to live paycheck to paycheck or if they have massive wealth. Everyone seems to be clawing for just a bit more. I really like what pastor and author John Mark Comer says about this: “Desire is infinite, meaning it has no limit. There’s no point at which desire is ever satisfied. And because we are finite, right—we inhabit time and space; I’m in one body, one gender, one marriage, one city, one job, one family, one life, one story because we are finite—the end result is restlessness. We live with a chronic state of unsatisfied desire, like an itch that just no matter how often you scratch it, it just does not go away.”

It’s true. Humanity has an insatiable appetite for . . . well, almost everything. Sometimes, this gets horribly out of control and causes major harm—not just for individuals but for whole communities. Think about the times corporate greed has led to mass worker mistreatment and environmental destruction. Thankfully, though, desire can manifest itself in positive ways too. I love stories of someone catching a vision for a better tomorrow and becoming so hungry for it that they chase it with everything they’ve got.

Desire is a great motivator. It gets us out of bed in the morning, inspires us to work out, build a business, you name it! Unfortunately, when it spirals out of control, we get into trouble. So the big question is, what can be done about this? Does God have a plan here, or is He just sitting back to watch?

follow your desire for God

I think C. S. Lewis, in his beautiful book Mere Christianity, hits the nail on the head when he says, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” Within us is a desire that cannot be fully satisfied by anything here on earth, at least not as it is now. The Bible tells of a time when God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4, ESV). All of our desires will be completely satisfied, not just for a moment of bliss, but forever. We will live in endless satisfaction—the life God originally intended for us. Embrace your desire for the eternal future, and be assured that the best is on its way. And if you struggle to maintain your desire for God’s destiny for you, here are some practices that have helped me.

GRATITUDE. I try to make time every day to write down or think about things I am grateful for: my work, my family, my health, or the sun that shines. I note the small things, too—as often as I can remember them—and it has made me much more satisfied with life.

SABBATH. This is a time when I stop consuming and stockpiling and just rest. In those twenty-four hours, I don’t shop or dwell on all the things I wish I had. I just spend time with God and the people I love and in serving others. The Sabbath regularly gives me a small glimpse into what the new earth will look like because I practice living that future life every week.

GENEROSITY. While it might feel good to receive something, it feels great to give something. Giving also keeps me less attached to stuff and more attached to what matters.

I often struggle to wrap my head around what a world without pain and suffering will look like. It seems so foreign to me. And though I can’t fully comprehend a world without difficulty, I still long for it. Driven by a desire for a better life is how God made me, and that is how He made you.

The promise of Revelation 21 is not that God will take us away from our earthly home forever. On the contrary, we will eventually call the new earth our eternal home. It will be restored to perfection. It will be uncorrupted by fear, greed, or evil, as we live with now. There will be no more pain and no more tears. We will live in a world that fully realizes the goodness that God intended for His creation. A world where we have all we need because we dwell with God, the giver of all life. A world where perfect love reigns in every heart.