At some point in our 20s (or maybe 30s), we begin to have a gnawing feeling that there’s some elusive secret to life – something beyond ourselves – and in typical human fashion we invest a lot of our own time and energy trying to figure it out.
So we try things. Good things and not-so-good things. Advanced education. High-powered careers. Sex. Drugs. Alcohol. Political causes. Anti-political causes. Alternative lifestyles. Alternative religions. Military service. Art. Music. Money. Power.
Some people don’t have any kind of plan, they just figure their life purpose is to rebel against their parents, the government, the establishment, or God himself.
This quest for meaning could be described as an effort to fill a universal human void. I agree with Blaise Pascal, the 17th century mathematician and philosopher, who described the void as an abyss, a God-shaped hole in the heart of every man.
“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end…the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present… But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable Object, that is to say, only by God Himself.”
Intentionally or unknowingly, most of us spend our life attempting to fill that infinite abyss. And you know what? That quest is never in vain. The quest is noble! Yes, we may take a wrong path or stumble in our pilgrimage. But if we continue to seek the highest purpose – truth, justice, righteousness, love – we will eventually find the one true God.
God is reaching out to all of us, but it’s still up to each of us to reach back. The familiar passage from the gospel of Matthew confirms, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7).
The Old Testament encourages us to put our whole heart and soul into the pursuit of truth, “You will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 4:29)
Maybe the relationship we can have with God is best described in James 4:8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
Pursuing God is a noble quest. Perhaps the only worthwhile pursuit! So seek his face. Turn to him. And don’t be surprised when the Creator of the Universe turns to you. Filling your life with purpose.
And that’s the memo,
/jay
