Why Languishing Is the New Buzzword

By: Sam Chan

The buzzword for this year is “languishing”

Languishing describes how we feel in the covid isolation lockdown: Not flourishing. Not bored. But languishing.

But why do we feel this way?

I can’t imagine a dog, or a goldfish, or a virus particle feeling this way.

So why do we humans feel it?

Because languishing is our soul’s way of saying: “There must be more to life than just this!”

It’s our human intuition telling us that we must be more than just atoms and molecules. Things don’t just happen without a reason. Instead, this universe has a purpose and direction, but right now we’re not feeling it. Because it feels like we’re going nowhere. We’re only circling the block, over and over again.

Maybe, languishing is also God’s way of saying that our intuitions are correct. This universe does have a story for us – and it’s called the God Story – i.e. the “gospel”.

All stories have a beginning, middle, and end.

Languishing tells us that right now, we’re only in the middle of the story. Not the end.

Languishing also tells us that we better take our part in God’s story.

Otherwise we risk being stuck in the middle of no story at all… where we end up languishing forever without God and his story for us.

Article supplied with thanks to Espresso Theology.

About the Author: Sam is a theologian, preacher, author, evangelist, ethicist, cultural analyst and medical doctor.

Feature image: Photo by GRAY on Unsplash