The Most-searched-for Answer

“I will instruct you and teach you

in the way you should go;

I will counsel you and watch over you.”

(Psalm 32:8)

Growing up, I had a plan for how I could make my life good. Get a good education. A good job. A good husband. A few good kids. A good house. A good flower bed out front. And a good minivan parked in the driveway. Then life would be … good.

Eventually, I had all that good stuff. And I was thankful for it all. I loved my family to pieces. The minivan wasn’t all I thought it would be, but I felt like an official mom driving it. So even that wound up being good.

But something inside me still felt hollow. A little off. A little lacking. So, I reasoned, I needed something else to do. Something that would use my gifts and talents. And while these things were fun and satisfying on one level, they too fell short when it came to that deep place ringing with the echoes of empty.

Empty is a heavy load to bear. Wanting to be filled but not knowing what might fill the deep soul leaves a gnawing ache, prompting a search that can seem both futile and shattering at times.

When you try and try, always feeling like the answer is just around the corner, and then it isn’t, your heart can split wide open and leak dry all your reserves.

It can make you feel unsatisfied and frustrated with everything. Even those you love. Maybe especially those you love.

So you fake a smile and keep putting one foot in front of the other. But eventually you stop peeking around the next corner hoping the answer is there. Past experience tells you it isn’t. And wrapped in that perception is the noose that strangles hope.

Sadly, this is where many women live. I know this place because I lived there. I struggled there. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). We’re not going to find something else to save us — only Jesus is equipped for that job.

No good plan is the answer. Even a good husband, good children, a good friend make a very poor God. No education or job or house can save you.

Salvation can’t be found in anyone or anything else. There is no other.

Only Jesus.

And I’m not just talking about claiming to be a Christian. Following the rules and really following Jesus are two totally different things. Going through the motions of religion won’t ever satisfy. True satisfaction comes only when we bend low, open our hearts in complete surrender, and say, “Jesus, it’s you. Only you. There is no other.”

And then we must really live like this is true.

Because it is. True.