The following quote by James Martineau is written eloquently; his grasp on the English language is amazing; but it makes it hard to understand if you don't read much of it. 

Because of that, I ran it through ChatGPT which helps summarize it because it is so important to the Christian walk. 

Original 

"Our natural faculties and affections are graduated then to objects greater, better, fairer and more enduring, than the order of Nature gives us here. 

They demand a scale and depth of being which outwardly they do not meet, 

yet inwardly they are the organ for apprehending. 

Hence a certain glorious sorrow must ever mingle with our life: 

our actual is transcended by our possible; 

our visionary faculty is an overmatch for our experience: 

like the caged bird, we break ourselves against the bars of the finite, 

with a wing that quivers for the infinite. 

To stifle this struggle, to give up the higher aspirations, and be content with making our small lodgings snug, is to cut off the summit of our nature, and live upon the flat of a mutilated humanity."

 A.I. explanation - 

Our minds and hearts are drawn to things greater and more lasting than what the world offers. Though the outer world falls short, inwardly we’re built to grasp deeper meaning. This creates a beautiful sorrow in life—our reality is outpaced by our potential; 

our imagination exceeds our experience. 

Like a caged bird longing for the sky, we strain against our limits. To stop striving, to settle for comfort alone, is to deny the heights of our nature and live a diminished life.