Ready, Fire, Aim

There seems to be a search for something in many people’s lives. When we interact with people, engage in conversations, and carry out life’s duties, there seems to be this endless look on the horizon to fill a void. What this is exactly seems to be different for each person. Some people are looking for fame; others are searching for purpose. A job hunt for one person can be a search for companionship for another. Someone can be looking to discover his or her identity; another can be seeking his or her purpose in life. Whatever it might be, most of us are looking, and we will not stop the search until we find what it is.

Even though people’s searches might seem different, once the layers are pulled back, there is usually a commonality found amongst each one. As each journey unfolds, no matter where the path leads, the driving force is often the same. In each occurrence of a search through life, most of us are looking for one thing—a thing so powerful, fulfilling, and never ending we tend to be lost without it. This thing is joy.

Now when I look up the word joy, the definition provided is “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, good fortune, or the prospect of possessing what one desires.” If you’re looking at the root of most people’s search, one of those descriptors in the definition of joy can be found. No one actually wants the specific job, person, or understanding. People search after the things they do to fill the empty feeling. We all believe each thing we are searching for will bring us that feeling of success, good fortune, or well-being. The thing we are searching for will bring us ultimate and sustaining joy.

In my life, I have searched for joy in just about everything you can imagine. I tried to be a certain person, buy specific things, hang out with particular people, and follow certain interests. The list goes on and on. Every time, I seemed to always come up short. The joy was always fleeting.

When the joy would run out, I would go running to the very next thing. Typically I was sprinting to something emptier than the thing before. I searched and searched, hoping and begging these things would be the solution to the emptiness inside, the answer to the joy I so longed for, but I was left disappointed every time.

Finally, after years and years of destruction in my life, mostly self-inflicted, I found the answer. I discovered the key that unlocks the thing that filled the void inside of me, the space, I believe, inside all of us. If filled with this particular thing, it will bring us everlasting joy and fulfillment. The thing I found was Jesus, and I found Him in the local church.