Imperfect Perfection
As human beings we are pretty fascinating creatures, filled with emotions, desires, and the ability to make decisions of the will that surpass our natural instincts. No other creature on Earth can say that—well, no other creature on Earth can say anything. We are special. Yet we all—at some time or another—find ourselves in a situation where we feel incomplete. It might be that we feel unloved or unwanted. Perhaps we are in dire need of approval. We want our actions to be validated and appreciated. We are such perfect beings that we are able to see in ourselves a stain of imperfection.
We are not happy and we will stop at nothing to achieve happiness. Our lives are fraught with ups and downs as we journey towards an unknown goal, a happiness that we can only know when we ourselves have come to attain it.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” ~ United States Declaration of Independence
Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places
There is a void within each of us. Something is missing and we don’t know what it is. We can spend our whole lives searching and never find it. In order to fill this emptiness we immerse ourselves in the materialistic consumerism of our society. We try to define happiness with material things and we fail. It’s often the first thought we all have of happiness. Maybe if I had everything I would be happy. If I had a new car, a big house, and this, and that, etc. then I would be happy. The unsettling thing about this flawed point of view is that we all know that it isn’t true, yet we continue to waste our lives in pursuit of such falsehoods.
Look at the rich and the famous, the celebrities who take their own lives, because they mysteriously find no happiness in all their “stuff.” Once they have all the material things that they thought would bring them happiness and realize that they are still unhappy and unfulfilled, then they turn to other measures. They seek to find happiness by intoxicating themselves with drugs and alcohol—which only attempt to alter our present reality. Then as they grow older and look back on their lives as a failure—since they have not found a purpose to it all—they try to turn back the clock through plastic surgery and anti-aging creams, only to find out that they are still only skimming the surface. They are changing their appearance, but it’s something deeper within them that remains empty.
“You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.” ~ St. Augustine of Hippo
That emptiness, that void, that hole within us is a God-shaped one. We can try to fill it with material things and they do fit, but they can never truly fill the hole. It’s like those children’s toys with the holes in the shape of a triangle, a circle, and a square. We try to fit the triangle and the square into the circle to no avail. Never do we realize the obvious, that only the circle-shaped block will fill the circle-shaped hole. But when we do figure it out—when we actually acknowledge the truth that only God can fill the emptiness inside us—we will never forget it.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” ~ Matthew 11:28
Jesus Christ offers us the rest we need, the answer to our problems, and the happiness we seek. God has created us with that emptiness inside of us so that He can fill us with Himself.