heartache of a different kind

If I only could some of my friends make realize that this "God thing" is not about religion and rules but about the Creator of the universe who loves us beyond understanding and desires so much that we love Him in return.

It breaks my heart to see some friends struggling with life to fill the void in their lifes by finding the right identity, or the right partner, the right job, the right house to live in or whatever. If they just could understand that this void is "God-created" and can only be filled by Him. Every other things (or person) we try to fill that void with might satisfy us for a moment, but it will never last and at the end of the day we are still standing there - alone.

And although it is actually easy to find God, it costs something - at least the understanding, that we really need Him, which is always kind of humiliating. It also costs time and some kind of energy. It is like searching for a treasure on a Treasure Island - if we would go there, we had to do a lot of preparation: Find a boat, a crew, supplies, have the right map - plus, there might be pirates who want to hinder us to get there.

But - as I also sometimes say - you have to dig deep and hard if you want to find diamonds. (This analogy fits in this case as well as for any aspect in our lifes.) And if we are willing to pay the costs, we will find something of prime importance, something that (or better somebody who) is brilliantly shining so that our life finally makes a complete sense.

(Spring ESR 2010 in a nutshell)