Look Around

“Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.” - Psalm 73:23

“Imagine you’re twenty-four and I’m twenty-six! We’ll both be married and live next to each other. Our kids will be best friends!” My mind flashes back to the words my older brother shouted in excitement fifteen years ago. 

I had forgotten, but as my student fantasizes about a future grown-up life with his brothers, reality hits. I’m twenty-four. My older brother is twenty-six. The realization that I’m nowhere near my childhood prophecy slams me in the gut. 

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We are creatures of discontentment. We are in constant search for the “next.” We never have enough. In a world of advertisements, we are, without knowing it, being fed a sickness that always needs the next thing. And we have bought into this lie of more. 

How do we get well? Healing from a disease that desires what’s not had can only come from the one who actually satisfies—the one who will not simply feed our sick hearts, but offer Himself as the cure.

Fortunately, our eternal hunger can indeed be fed by this eternal God. However, if you are looking for a step-by-step protocol, you will miss the miracle. This cure doesn’t involve taking medicine. The real healing comes when you pursue intimate relationship with Jesus. 

Illustration by Anna Rendall

Why? Tragically, life with God has been bundled into mere biblical truths. “You are deeply loved.” “You are uncondemned.” “Love your neighbor.” These are correct and powerful, but if you expect to find deep satisfaction in truth statements, then you miss the gospel entirely.

The pinnacle of the good life started in the garden when a man and a woman walked with God. They required nothing more; in fact, the thought of more never occurred to them until wickedness whispered a lie. It was only after sin corrupted their bodies that their contentment disappeared.

The gospel is good because it speaks of a Savior who fixed the gap. We are now once again able to walk with God. Though we find ourselves not yet back in a good garden, our relationship is redeemed.

Until you begin treating your relationship with God as a lover pursuing a lover, the hole in your heart yearning for quick fixes will remain. I don’t have steps for this because instructions would dehumanize the very idea of such relationship.

What I do have is beginner relationship advice: Look around. Instead of meditating on all you don’t have or still want, think about the blessings and work your Heavenly Father has already given and done for you. Stop looking at the next and pause in the now. What joys has He given you? What answered prayers have you overlooked? Where have you forgotten to say, “Thank you, Abba”?

It has been the case for me that sitting for a moment and recognizing what work He has already done reveals how intimately involved He has been and continues to be in my life. This then opens the door for me to see my walk with Him as a deep relationship rather than a lifeless religion.

So, stop yearning for the next. Open your eyes and look around.

Create in me a greater desire for you, Abba. I want to see you, hear you, and touch you. I want to be held by you, God. I want to long for you, to thirst for you, to know you. Teach me your ways, O God, that I may walk in your ways.

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18