January 23, 2018
Happiness. Completely satisfying, lasting happiness. It seems to be elusive.
Sometimes it seems like we are always chasing “the ultimate happiness” on some condition. Have you ever found yourself saying, “Oh, I’ll feel a lot better when I turn in this big project, or when the weekend comes, or when the stress of my busy schedule slows down a little bit.” But it never stops - there’s always something in the way of the peace you imagined. It can feel like we’re never quite full.
My first semester in college, I experienced this big time. All of a sudden, I was living two hours from home, where I didn’t know anyone, trying my best to be an adult when just a few months earlier I had to ask to use the restroom. It was a big transition.
I was super excited when I first arrived - there was no one to tell me when to clean my room, when to go to sleep, where to go, what to do, anything. I was loving every second of my newfound independence. However, there was also no one to go to church with me, and because of that I never found a church in the area and grew away from God during my first semester.
Like most college freshmen can attest to, the transition was hard. I wasn’t getting enough sleep, I hadn’t quite found my group of people yet, and things just weren’t going as I expected them to. After a while, it began to feel like something was missing. I wasn’t happy. I began to try to fill the hole in my life with all kinds of things: friends, relationships, social events, good grades, success in my sport. But it just didn’t work. Every time I got an A, it was anti-climatic; I just moved on to getting the next good grade. Success in my sport was rewarding but fleeting. I couldn’t have a perfect practice every day, and when I didn’t, it was devastating to me. Every time one of these things happened that I thought should have fulfilled me, they didn’t. By Christmas break, it was clear that something really needed to change.
That first semester was hard for me to get through, but it’s actually the best worst thing that ever happened to me. I’ve learned that sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before you realize you can’t do it alone. During that semester that I spent so much time pushing God away, I learned how much I really needed Him.
You see, there’s a God-sized hole in everyone’s heart. My attempts to fill that hole in my heart with worldly things were useless. The whole time I was looking for happiness in new friends, good grades, relationships, and “success”, I was actually looking for God without knowing it.
This hole in our hearts can never be filled with anything we find here on this Earth - but why? Because this hole is proof that we are made for something more. We are made for eternal life, but since this is nothing we’ve ever experienced and can’t understand, we’re left longing desperately for something that we can’t put a name to and can’t satisfy by ourselves.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
This God-sized hole in all of our hearts can never be filled with anything but our glorious, beautiful, wonderful God himself. You’ve got two options: you can keep desperately trying to fill that hole with things that won’t fill it, or you can turn to God.
Happiness. Completely satisfying, lasting happiness. It seems to be elusive.
Sometimes it seems like we are always chasing “the ultimate happiness” on some condition. Have you ever found yourself saying, “Oh, I’ll feel a lot better when I turn in this big project, or when the weekend comes, or when the stress of my busy schedule slows down a little bit.” But it never stops - there’s always something in the way of the peace you imagined. It can feel like we’re never quite full.
My first semester in college, I experienced this big time. All of a sudden, I was living two hours from home, where I didn’t know anyone, trying my best to be an adult when just a few months earlier I had to ask to use the restroom. It was a big transition.
I was super excited when I first arrived - there was no one to tell me when to clean my room, when to go to sleep, where to go, what to do, anything. I was loving every second of my newfound independence. However, there was also no one to go to church with me, and because of that I never found a church in the area and grew away from God during my first semester.
Like most college freshmen can attest to, the transition was hard. I wasn’t getting enough sleep, I hadn’t quite found my group of people yet, and things just weren’t going as I expected them to. After a while, it began to feel like something was missing. I wasn’t happy. I began to try to fill the hole in my life with all kinds of things: friends, relationships, social events, good grades, success in my sport. But it just didn’t work. Every time I got an A, it was anti-climatic; I just moved on to getting the next good grade. Success in my sport was rewarding but fleeting. I couldn’t have a perfect practice every day, and when I didn’t, it was devastating to me. Every time one of these things happened that I thought should have fulfilled me, they didn’t. By Christmas break, it was clear that something really needed to change.
That first semester was hard for me to get through, but it’s actually the best worst thing that ever happened to me. I’ve learned that sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before you realize you can’t do it alone. During that semester that I spent so much time pushing God away, I learned how much I really needed Him.
You see, there’s a God-sized hole in everyone’s heart. My attempts to fill that hole in my heart with worldly things were useless. The whole time I was looking for happiness in new friends, good grades, relationships, and “success”, I was actually looking for God without knowing it.
This hole in our hearts can never be filled with anything we find here on this Earth - but why? Because this hole is proof that we are made for something more. We are made for eternal life, but since this is nothing we’ve ever experienced and can’t understand, we’re left longing desperately for something that we can’t put a name to and can’t satisfy by ourselves.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
This God-sized hole in all of our hearts can never be filled with anything but our glorious, beautiful, wonderful God himself. You’ve got two options: you can keep desperately trying to fill that hole with things that won’t fill it, or you can turn to God.