Looking for Happiness in
All the Wrong Places
Like
many people, I was unconsciously searching for that evasive little creature
called happiness, but didn’t know where to find it.
While
growing up in an average, middle-class, American family, I had the opportunity
of having everything that I needed and nearly everything that I wanted as well,
materially speaking. Yet a void existed
in my life. And though my parents loved
me and provided a good, secure home life, something was still missing. In spite of the fact that friends, academic
achievements, honors, and popularity were not at all lacking in my life, I
still wasn’t satisfied. And though I was
involved in various hobbies and sporting events, none of these things permanently
filled the emptiness that I had within.
Then,
the discovery to my unconscious searching for happiness came one day when a
college student shared with me why Jesus Christ came to earth. He explained that Jesus Christ came for the
express purpose of dying on the cross as payment for the penalty of all my
wrong actions, attitudes, and words.
This college student went on to say that I could experience the joy of
being rightly related to God through faith in Jesus Christ, and that I could
have the assurance of eternal life in God’s presence
in heaven when I died. Because this made
sense to me, I went ahead and as an act of my will, I placed my trust in
Christ’s death as the complete payment for the total forgiveness of all my
sins, and then I invited Christ to take up residence in my life as personal
Savior.
I
can vividly remember that the void which was once present in my life was now
gone, and has since that time never reappeared.
Likewise, the worries of life which once plagued me vanished. Though I’m still often confronted with tense
situations and difficult times, I can relax knowing that God is in control of
my life. I would have to say that the
three words which best describe the life I’m now experiencing are: peace, joy, and
fulfillment.
Where
is happiness? Well, for me at least,
it’s in knowing that I have a right relationship with my Creator through faith
in Jesus Christ my Lord.