Measuring success can be easy. For most, the definition of goals and anticipation of expected outcomes defines the scale; actual results are the measure. The problem with this approach is that it does not account for what most of us seek, happiness. We know happiness when we have it, we sense it when we loose it, and yet we have no idea of how to describe what we seek.
For some, a state of happiness is a choice. For others, this approach raises yet another question, what if I am settling for second best? What if there is something more that I cannot see or have?
Increasingly people recognize their thirst for happiness as a spiritual thirst. They acknowledge that traditional religion has failed to quench what they seek. When you talk to them about the options, from music to sport to eastern religion to new age solutions, everything new and exciting is failing even more quickly than the traditional solutions. Are we doomed to yearn for something that is illusive? Is there no solution for all of us? Does God merely touch the select few?
Without trying to sound arrogant, I know the frustration of seeking the options. I found the religion of my childhood formal and sterile. I was neutral on the content, however the experience lacked anything that compelled me to return. I wanted more, but where and what was it?
I explored several options and found my thirst even greater than when I began. I settled for something second best, always wondering if this was “it.” When I finally gave up pursuing what I thought was it, let go and began to be honest with God, things started. I yelled and screamed when the situation demanded. I cried when things overwhelmed. I saw myself for who and what I really was and am. And a friend took me to the Cross and I saw God and how He looked at me.
“The one who seeks good finds delight; the student of evil becomes evil.” (Proverbs 11.27) The pursuit of God changes everything.
