Faith Forum by Gloria Wessner - What's Missing?

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What is it you are looking for? Is it lots of money and success? A meaningful and permanent relationship? A nice house and car? A nice family to raise and enjoy? Inner peace that is there even when things are difficult and totally impossible?

It seems that it is always something that people are looking for – that one thing that will be the glue that will hold my world together and make me happy. Perhaps it isn't something that we need, it's who. There is a song by Johnny Lee (also sung by Waylon Jennings) called “Looking for Love,” and in it are these lines that ring true when looking for that 'something' that will complete and fulfill our lives:

“I was lookin' for love in all the wrong places Lookin' for love in too many places…”

Even in this song, however, what comes out is that he is looking for that one special person that would be a friend and a lover. He was looking for love in things and realized he was looking for that special person to love (and be loved by) in a relationship.

“Searchin' her eyes, lookin' for traces
Of what I'm dreamin' of
Hoping to find a friend and a lover”

Because we don't know what we're searching for, we often do look 'in all the wrong places' in our search to find that one true something. In real life, in our everyday lives, in searching for that special 'something,' we need to change our focus from that 'thing' to 'who.' That is why so many people don't find what they're looking for. Just like in the song, things (like those listed above) will not fulfill what that basic desire is that needs to be fulfilled. It's totally in the 'who.'

The words below answer all of the needs that we've been talking about. In our looking, we need to look for God; he is the 'who.' Here, in these words,  he promises that if we look wholeheartedly, we WILL find him and he will be FOUND by us. Then, when we find him, he promises plans for our good, to give us a future and a hope. This is not a blank check for a life full of bliss, but a commitment to us that everything that happens to us and we live through, HE knows already what that is and will bring us not only safely through, but be with us in everything right through to the other side.

”For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  will be found by you,…” I says the LORD. (Jeremiah 29:11 – 14a NLT)

Sometimes we may not agree with God about what we go through and be unhappy with the way things turn out. But if we are truly committed to him as he promises he is committed to us, he will help us see that it truly was the best way, even if we don't understand it. We learn to trust him, even if we don't understand him.
Finding God is finding him through his son Jesus, whom God chose to die a painful death and then raised him to life again in order to provide that means to find our 'who.' Consider his words below:

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life (eternal life, living forever). God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.” (John 3:16 – 18 The Message, parenthesis mine)

Perhaps it's not that 'something' you've been looking for, but 'someone.' I know that I would not like to live my life without knowing God personally. He is the living glue that not only holds my life together, but gives it meaning, purpose and love, too.

Feel free to write me at: gloriawes@hotmail.com, and I would be glad to chat with you further.