Question 5 – Why should I even search for God?

Well then, let us say that God exists. What about it? Can a person not also live a contented life without God and faith? Is it not enough to simply live a good life? After all, I do not need to be a believer to be a good person. Why be considered a fool by many people? Why struggle with myself; why deny myself and not give way to my wants, my cravings and my desires?

Dear readers, the answer is quite simple – simple because we were created for a relationship with God, not for a life without Him, not for a life that pursues its own goals and agenda! After all, we know where we end up without God's order, love and guidance. The sad thing is is that we misuse what God has given us and then, paradoxically, use the consequences of our own actions as arguments against His existence.

An Empty Space

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart…" (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

God created mankind with a kind of empty space within himself. This space is like an engine which pulls and motivates us to continually look for something. Without even being aware of it, somewhere deep inside of us we always have the feeling that something is missing. We try to fill this need in various ways – a career, self-actualization, family, a home, an unrelenting pursuit for happiness, fame, glory or a relationship and religion. Am I not right? Try thinking about your life a little more and analysing your desires. Identify that empty space. Acknowledge that it is there…

The hard reality is that as soon as we reach the desire that we try to satiate, we find that we have another desire. Before long we discover a thirst and find out that that space is continually unfulfilled. We find out that the reservoir of our desires has a hole in it and is continually leaking as we continually try to fill it, so we begin the search again. We begin to spin the wheel of fleeting desires and goals again and again. None of these, however, will stand unless we rest in God, in Jesus Christ. Nothing/ no one but God himself can fill this so called empty space. God will not even allow it to be filled! A countless number of Christians will confirm this fact on the basis of their own experience and I can add my voice to theirs.

Why do you think that so many people have lost meaning in life with the result that they fall into depression and commit suicide? They do not/cannot see any other recourse. They run after a non-existent happiness on which they have hung all their hope, however, they discover that they will not/cannot find it and are disappointed. If they happen to reach their dreamed-of goal, they find that it still doesn't fill that empty space within themselves. International Christian author, Tim Keller, expresses it very nicely in a practical example in his book, King's Cross. He QUOTEs Cynthia Heimel who over many years, got to know a whole range of people that desired to be famous and who, in the end, achieved it:

"I pity celebrities. No, I really do — (celebrities) were once perfectly pleasant human beings... but now their wrath is awful. More than any of us, they wanted fame. They worked, they pushed... The morning after each of them became famous, they wanted to take an overdose. Because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything OK, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness had happened. And nothing changed. They were still them. The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable."[6]

Does this not bring to mind the sad stories of hundreds of celebrities and successful singers who are addicted to drugs, alcohol or those who have committed suicide? After all, they had everything that many of us desire – money, fame, possessions, uncountable sexual partners… What were they missing? How is it that so often people like this end up depressed, on drugs and end with a bullet in their heads?

Another example could be disillusioned parents who have devoted their lives to their children. They pour everything into them, so many sacrifices, so much self-denial! Afterwards, when they have grown old, their children put them into an old folks home. It is no wonder that their whole world caves in! We could continue with similar examples. Therefore, if we build our lives on anything other than God alone, we will never find that for which our heart desires and thirsts. Our problem is, after all, the reality that we have an unquenchable desire to alter the truth by our desires instead of changing our desires in accordance with the truth that we know.

Why look for God, then?

• because He alone, our Creator, can fulfil our desire for meaning in our existence.
• because God loves us and desires to fill our lives with love and peace.
• because if we do not look for Him, we are going to inflict more wounds on ourselves and deepen the emptiness in our souls.
• because unless we look for Him, we will spend eternity without Him – and that would truly be hell. The reverse would be if we look for Him and desire Him and accept Him into our lives, He promises us eternal life in His presence.

"Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)

Summation

This question with its proposition is similar to the question, 'Why should I breathe?' The answer resounds, 'Because your body was created in such a way that you need air and without it you will die.' It is the same with God – we should look for Him so that we can live, live a meaningful life, eternally and according to our original purpose.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." - St. Augustine of Hippo (early Church Father)