As someone who is almost always working on something, the question felt very personal. I spend much of my time writing books, going to school, learning, and creating. There is often another idea forming, another story to write, another project to move forward. Hearing that question made me pause and really think about my own motivations. Why do I keep moving forward? What is driving that desire to continue learning and creating? Is it simply ambition? Is it purpose? Or is there something deeper that is harder to name?
If I am honest, sometimes my tendency to keep doing and producing is not always about growth. Sometimes it is about avoiding stillness. For many years I learned how to stay busy. Work, writing, school, projects, plans. Staying in motion can sometimes feel easier than sitting quietly with what is happening inside your heart. Activity can become a way to keep moving forward without having to fully feel everything that is underneath the surface.
There are moments when I recognize that pattern in myself. It is easier to write another chapter, sign up for another class, or map out the next idea than it is to sit in silence and allow certain memories, questions, or emotions to surface. Busyness can become a shield. Doing can become a way of not feeling.
But there is also another side to this. Not all striving comes from avoidance. Sometimes the desire to grow and create comes from something much deeper. Sometimes it comes from a real thirst that lives inside the human heart. A thirst for meaning, for purpose, for beauty, and for truth. A thirst to use the gifts we have been given in a way that matters.
That is why my friend’s daughter’s question felt so important. It asked something many adults rarely stop to examine. How do we know the difference between restless searching and genuine growth?
Then last night, during Mass, something I heard in Father Luke’s homily brought that question back to the surface in a new way. He said something that immediately caught my attention. He said that it is okay not to feel content and to recognize our thirst, as long as we continue bringing that thirst to Christ. He spoke about how Jesus desires our hearts and our longings. Christ does not ask us to eliminate our desires. Instead, He invites us to bring those desires to Him.
That thought reframed the whole question for me. We often hear that we should be content, and contentment is certainly a good virtue. But sometimes the word contentment can sound like we are supposed to quiet our desires completely or stop longing for something more. Yet when we look at Scripture, thirst is often used as a powerful image for the human relationship with God. The human heart naturally longs for meaning, love, belonging, and purpose. Beneath many of our goals and ambitions is a deeper longing that ultimately points toward God.
When we chase accomplishments on their own, our thirst can turn into restlessness. No milestone ever feels like enough because the next one is already waiting. But when we bring our desires to Christ, something different begins to happen. The striving becomes an offering rather than a burden. Our goals become part of our prayer. The work we do can become a way of serving others and participating in the gifts God has placed within us.
Writing books, continuing my education, and pursuing new ideas do not have to come from a place of dissatisfaction with life. They can come from a place of gratitude and stewardship. God gives each of us talents, ideas, and passions. Those inner stirrings are not problems that need to be suppressed. They can be invitations to grow and to share what we have been given.
At the same time, it is important to be honest about the tension that can exist inside the heart. Sometimes the drive to keep moving comes from a place of avoiding pain. Other times it comes from the genuine desire to respond to the gifts God has placed within us. Discerning the difference requires honesty and prayer.
The key question may not be whether we are striving, but where our striving is leading us. If our goals leave us anxious, constantly comparing ourselves to others, or feeling like we are never enough, then our thirst may be directed toward something that cannot truly satisfy us. But if our desires lead us back to Christ, if they deepen our trust in Him and help us use our gifts to serve others, then those desires can become pathways of grace.
The human heart was never meant to be completely satisfied by the world alone. We were created with a deeper longing that points toward God. Sometimes the quiet thirst we feel is not a sign that something is wrong. Sometimes it is an invitation to bring our hearts more honestly to Christ, who understands both our striving and our longing.
And sometimes the work of faith is learning to sit with both truths at the same time. To recognize when we are trying to stay busy so we do not have to feel, and to recognize when the desire within us is something holy, a longing that invites us to bring our hearts honestly before Christ, the One who alone can satisfy the deepest thirst of the human heart.