Why do families fight and break apart? Why do corporations steal and cheat? Why do we struggle with arrogance and anger? Why are we elated one moment and depressed the next?
Why do nations threaten to go to war? Why are others committed to peace or neutrality? Why do societies campaign for liberty, equality and justice?
Why are certain individuals devout, courageous with their faith and zealous for evangelism? Why are others indifferent or staunchly opposed to a religious faith of any kind?
It may not be obvious at first, but there are two things that link all these human beings together: a predisposition for glory and a hunger for truth.
Glory and Truth
By God’s design, human beings were hardwired, or predisposed, for glory. A glorious God created a glorious world, and he gave us powerful sensors to experience this glory. But these experiences were never meant to satisfy our souls; they were designed to point us to the Creator, with whom we existed in an all-satisfying relationship.
When sin entered the world, everything changed. Human beings became disconnected from the Creator, and we developed the ability to look glory in the face and not see glory. When our eyes are blind to the glory of God, we waste our lives chasing the silly, unfulfilling and destructive distractions of the fallen world.
But we weren’t only predisposed for glory—God placed within us a hunger for truth. No rational human being is unconcerned about truth. We want to know the truth, we want to think we’re right about the truth, and we want assurance that what we think is true is actually true. You can’t divide human beings into those who are truth seekers and those who aren’t; what divides us is where we look for truth.
Again, when sin entered the world, everything changed. We developed the ability look at what was true and not see truth. We began to esteem foolishness and denigrate wisdom. We still hunger for the truth, but we cannot see the truth that alone satisfies our hunger, so we pursue the silly, unfulfilling and destructive follies of the fallen world.
Human beings can be very complex and diverse creatures, but at the core of who we are, we all exist with a predisposition for glory and a hunger for the truth.
