Love, Acceptance and a Nintendo 64

Have you ever wanted something really bad?

I mean, really bad.

When I was a kid it was a Nintendo 64.  When I was a teen it was love and acceptance.  Then as I grew into adulthood it was marriage, success, and a name for myself.  

Often times the desires for those things will cause us to do things that just don't make sense and quite frankly, aren't very wise.  We find ourselves so infatuated with that desire that in our tunnel vision we make life far too much about ourselves, focusing on what we don't have instead of what we do have.  

As we reflect on this month of being thankful.  I wonder, what are you not thankful for in your life, because inside of you burns a desire to just have that one thing.  You'll do just about anything to get it and you believe that without you can't truly be happy. 

I'm not saying that things like love, acceptance, success, marriage, or even a Nintendo 64 are bad things.  It becomes unhealthy when we believe the lie that if we don't have those things than we are incomplete.  In our pursuit of that one thing we lose focus on what really matters and we do stupid things to get it.  

Maybe you've pursued love in all the wrong places?  Maybe you married not because you really were committed to that person and loved them, but because you were desperate and lonely.  Maybe you've neglected your family, because success at your job became more important than spending time with them.  You might say that you love your family most, but what we love most gets revealed by what we invest the most time, effort and money into.  

Maybe in order to be accepted by others you've comprised your morals and beliefs so that you could "fit in".  You go home at night feeling like a total failure, knowing that this is not who you are, but you put a mask on once again and do it the next day.  

Too many of us are running around trying to be someone that we're really not.  We're like vacuums, sucking the life out of everything that we can find, hoping that maybe, just maybe, this will fill us up and give us that lasting joy and satisfaction.  

This makes me think of an encounter that Jesus has with a woman at the well.  She was a Samaritan and Jesus was a Jew.  Now, Jew's are not suppose to associate with Samaritans, they viewed them as "half breeds" and dogs.  But, Jesus had a different view and that shouldn't surprise us!  Jesus reaches out to this woman one day at the well and He offers her living water.  He tells her that if anyone drinks from the water that He gives they will never be thirsty and in them will become a spring that wells up into eternal life.  

Oh my goodness, did you just get the best mental picture in your head of what Jesus is describing?  I did.  I bet this woman did too.  The woman then asks where she can get this water and Jesus tells her that He is the living water.  Meaning, that if we come to Him, confessing our sin and asking Him to take control that He will fill us with joy, newness of life, peace, hope and purpose.  He will wash all of our sins away if we in our brokenness would cry out to Him realizing that we in and of ourselves are broken and rebellious people in desperate need of rescue.  Jesus Christ wants to give you life and life to the full.  He wants to give you a hope and turn your mourning into dance. He wants to take that empty feeling from you and fill it with joy, real and everlasting joy.  

Stop running, won't you?  I know from personal experience that a pursuit of anything other than Jesus Christ will leave you empty, disappointed and wanting more.  Find your hope in Him and watch Him set you free from the trap of needing something more to be complete.  All other things can be taken from you, but Jesus Christ has existed from eternity past and He will always exist.  He can never be taken from you.  

What I really want is Jesus, how about you?