"Something's missing and I don't know what it is..." so sings John Mayer and many other popular artists that saturate our world today. It may surprise you, but they're right. Something IS missing!
This is certainly not some new revelation of the 21st century. Almost 200 years ago, in the middle of the 19th century, the secular humanist Henry David Thoreau penned: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." We desperately claw our way through life trying to find what's missing - to fill the void - to find fulfillment in life - to know that our life matters and we are living a life of significance.
Most people choose to follow the path laid before them by their parents and culture. They are desperate to get the best grades, to go to the right school, to get the best job, to live the "American dream," and hopefully find what's missing in life.
The recent explosive growth of Facebook, Twitter and other social media has revealed just how desperate people have become in a vain attempt to find what's missing from their life. People now post pictures online of what they eat for breakfast or some other "exciting" event in their life hoping to project a certain image that others might admire. In reality, such posts often scream: "look at me! I *think* I've found what's missing in my life and it's right here in this experience that you don't have, but I do!"
Those who continually fail to find fulfillment now have another option: escape! Myriads of people now turn to fantasy and alternate "realities" in a vain attempt to live vicariously through the lives of others. Men, with a God-given desire to subdue creation and rule over it (Gen. 1:26), now turn to video games where they can be crowned "king" or "champion" of a fake world that disappears when the screen turns off. Women, longing for social interaction and love, drown themselves in online relationships and romantic novels.
So called "reality shows" on television feed off this longing to escape our own reality and life the life of another who we THINK has it better than us. We are conditioned to believe: "If I can't life that type of life, then at least I can experience it through someone else."
From the moment we are born we are fed a bottle of lies to make us think: "If we just had more time, more money, more influence, more friends, more toys...we might finally find what's missing from life and be content!" The problems is, as Chuck Swindoll puts it: "the itch for things, the lust for more - so brilliantly injected by those who peddle them - is a virus draining our souls of happy contentment." (Living on the Ragged Edge. Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1985.)
In our desperate search for significance and meaning in life we have been led so far down the wrong path that we find ourselves trying to blindly navigate life in a world gone mad.
Most of us have now tried everything that is within our grasp and can now relate to the words of another popular song: "I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls....But, I still haven't found what I'm looking for." There's never enough money - vacation is never long enough - the newness always wears off.
But, think with me for a moment.... what might happen to your life if you didn't have limits? What if there was infinite money, limitless boundaries and huge chunks of time without worry of a job or other commitments? What if you could do whatever you wanted with no risk of ever being caught? If all those limits were removed, do you think you finally find what's missing from your life? Would you be fulfilled?
Well, there once lived a man who had the money, the time, the limitless resources to do whatever his heart desired. Thankfully, he kept a journal of his journey, which has been kept for us to read today in the book of Ecclesiastes. The author of the journal was a man named Solomon, the third king of Israel, Son of David. As King, Solomon could do whatever he wanted and no one could question him, so he DID! He did it ALL! He followed every known human path to fulfillment in this world and at the end of his journey he found...NOTHING. In spite of the extravagant lengths to which he went to find fulfillment, nothing satisfied him! His conclusion was "everything is empty!"
Don't despair! There is hope! I encourage you to join me on a journey through Solomon's journal. You'll be glad you did!
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