It’s a curse that we follow gods of wood and stone. That we should be satisfied merely with the appearance of having everything and knowing the fullness of what life has to offer. As beautiful as all these things appear in all the forms they take, the truth is that they are nothing if they can only boast of what the eye can see.
If they are nothing more than exciting illusions that deceive our eyes to the emptiness that lies beneath, then they do not enrich us, but play the part of showing us each to be the fool. In the end, no matter how majestic their construction or the projection of their worth, they are just elements that will not withstand the heaviest heat.
They can protect us from rain and sun and meddlesome neighbors, but what hope are they against all too familiar threats of hurricane, tornado, flood, insect infestation? What can they offer us in the form of emotional, mental and spiritual support when our tears fall like rain and our troubles beat down upon us like the sun and our conscience becomes to us more meddlesome in our affairs than any neighbor ever was?
What happens when we realize that the most put-together “cover” or “spread” does nothing to cover up our insecurities or spread about peace and love within our souls? If none of these things that we call great can penetrate our own empty interior with joy or satisfaction do they really deserve all of our attention?
This is life: Search for the ultimate in existence, and finding it, live for it — even wisely sacrificing what now seeming like crucial aspects of status to hold onto it. Just in case you are getting tired of searching for even the beginnings of an answer, let me share it with you.
Jesus Christ is the answer you are looking for in all of your earthly and spiritual escapades. Not sure? He will make you sure! No, not by making you accept something that makes no sense and forcing you to act by it. He has a different way — a far more engaging and dignifying way.
He lets us make the choice for or against Him, but He won’t let us make it ill-informed. He is intent on showing Himself to you that you will know what you are accepting or rejecting. Not only do we get a revelation of who God is and how He is witnessed to us by the whole universe, but we get a tour of our own souls — a tour no one else would ever give us. By this I mean that He will show you what you are looking for and how that proves that He is what you need in all respects.
We need life that springs up from within us, yet is not dependent upon us or subject to the threat of any impending physical disaster or mental degeneration. We need light to see that everything that we have known in such short years on earth is not all there is. We need love that is mighty enough to remove each and every obstacle that stands in the way of us having what we really need to live.
We need a new vision and destiny that are over and above the fleeting joys of worldly significance and interest. For, having the entire world’s approval for our pithy measures of success is a dangerous happiness so long as it prevents us from leaving its comforts to find more. What can never really change who we are inside, cannot deliver us from our true poverty and distress: spiritually bankruptcy.
Some good in our lives can enable us to deny a lot of evil in our hearts, but we should not fail to consider the reward we will receive for this: aiding and abetting the lies of our Adversary Satan will only be shown to kill us in the end. In facing the truth we gain agreement with the One Hero who can superimpose His righteousness and legacy of peace on our wickedness and legacy of discord.
So, if your statuses have been the lessons of heartbreak or numb disillusionment, let me encourage you that your status doesn’t end with you. There is so much more to it than that. If you have been feeling disconnected it is not wholly summed up by the blank pages in your date planner or the absence of a deeply romantic relationship or a loved one who was once the rock of your existence. These things are all temporary alerts — whether in their abundance or absence — of how much you need to be satisfied in the pits of your soul.
There is so much more you want and it is still out there waiting for you…even if you’ve become disillusioned by your search. God is out there and He is more ready for you to find Him than you are to move beyond the common-blues of knowing nothingness. Lord, reveal Yourself to me, that’s all He’s asking of you in this moment.
After all, none of us can make any feat of impressing God — we please Him when we realize that only He has a handle on what can profoundly impress because He runs the show of history and includes us in the fun of making it happen. He fills us in on our parts and how we are to join the whole-production beauty when we relate to Him on the basis of His perfect (and we-perfecting) cues.
At Home with God 