Men can’t search
A personal reflection
“Where are my keys?
Today, I want to reflect on a phenomenon that’s familiar to many: men who can’t find things. And I might as well start with myself.
When I was still working in secondary education and walking through the school, I would always notice everything. I just saw it immediately: a crumpled piece of paper on the floor, an overturned bin, teenagers messing around. I would unconsciously take all these things in.
But what a disaster it is when I lose something myself. I simply can’t find it. While on the one hand I seem to be so good at noticing things, on the other hand, I always need my wife when my keys are missing. I’ll ask, “Where are my keys? I’ve looked everywhere!” Then she’ll come around the corner with the bunch of keys and say, “They were just in such-and-such a spot.” I just look right past them.
In search of important things
Maybe you’re also looking for things. Important things in your life. You’re searching for happiness, inner peace, contentment, stability. You’re looking, but you haven’t found it yet. People search for a solution in all sorts of places. When you’re sad or struggling with difficulties, you go looking for an answer. One person thinks, “We’ll just go on a nice holiday. Six, three, two weeks to go, and then we’ll finally find some peace.” Another says, “If I get a different job, I’ll be fine, because then at least I’ll be out of this situation.” Another, who is struggling with their relationship, says, “I’ll find another partner, because that will ultimately bring me happiness.” And so there are countless forms of therapy and ways to meditate. Many have eventually found that they couldn’t find happiness that way. The emptiness remains.
Help with the search
You, so to speak, need someone else to help you search. Just as I need my wife to find my keys, we, when it comes to the higher things, need someone else to help us. Every person is, as it were, born with an emptiness in their soul. I have found—and the Bible also teaches us—that this emptiness can only be filled by God.
The fundamental question every human being has is: what am I living for? What is the meaning of this life, now and in the future? And a question that occupies us all: what about eternity? Is it a dark, black void? Absolutely nothing? Or is there more? The Bible says, in any case, that there is another reality. And the question is: are you also in that other reality? Or do you not belong there?
The Way, the Truth, and the Life
Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” If you are seeking life, if you are seeking an answer, if you want to walk the path that leads to happiness, then you must go to Jesus.
I want to ask you honestly: do you dare to do that? Would you want to go to Him and say to Him: “Lord, is what is being said true? Are you life? Are you the truth? Are you what I am looking for? Can you fill that emptiness in me?”
The Bible says something very beautiful: whoever comes to God must believe that He exists. That is, of course, a prerequisite. But if you sincerely seek Him, He will reward you. So whoever goes in search of the reality of God, whoever seeks the way, the truth, and the life, will receive an answer. The Bible says that, not me. It is a proven truth that millions of people throughout the centuries, and also today, have experienced in their lives.
I hope you have the courage to accept that invitation.
The parable of the lost sheep
Perhaps someone reading this thinks: “That’s good for someone else, but not for me. I am a lost cause. I won’t even be noticed. God has passed me by. He doesn’t see me.”
Then I want to conclude with a very short story. In the Bible, Jesus tells about a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. But at one point, he lost one. The Bible says that He left the ninety-nine behind and went to look for that one because He missed it.
Maybe you are that one. In fact, I am quite certain: you are that one if you are not yet saved, if you are not yet the property of Jesus Christ. Then He goes in search of you. He leaves everything behind to find you. That one sheep was worth the path He went down.
This is how Jesus Christ is looking for you. And I want to ask you: will you let Him find you?
@wimvanputten