Lord, show me something beautiful, something glorious, because I know YOU are behind it all.
I am really feeling those words today. I am thankful and feeling so blessed this morning. Last night at LOL (middle/high school bible study) I handed out bandannas to all the students and the leaders to use as a blindfold. I wanted the students to take a moment and remove the distractions from their life and that included passing their cell phones and removing their sight for a few minutes as Pastor Travis preached his heart. I wanted the word of God to really hit their hearts and in order for us to hear God sometimes, we need to remove something that gets in the way. It went well and got some good feedback from that experience. As I led into that experience, I shared a little bit of my experience after watching the movie Sunday night - The Passion of the Christ. It was a little tough for me to not go to deep and make it about me but I wanted to frame in on the part that Jesus was on the cross for me and for everyone. But today I want to focus just a little on the creator of that movie - Mel Gibson.
Here is a man, like so many other folks, who seem to have had it all. Its a life many of us dream about. Living for the world I can see very easily why so many fall into its grasp. Fame, fortune, lifestyle, homes, travel, money, sex, power and influence, popularity - he has it all. Rarely does one man get all this in a lifetime. After this Australian actor got started with MadMax - he has been in many great movies. Lethal weapon series, Randsom - OMG Braveheart ... voted sexiest man a live by people magazine... he has it going on. You would think he would be the happiest man alive. He had the power to do anything in the world he wanted to do. 25 million a movie is the going rate. Nothing out of reach~
Yet something was missing. During an interview with Diane Sawyer - he admits that he was addicted to everything. Drugs, booze, coffee, cigs ...didnt matter. He sought treatment for his addictions but after getting clean and sober he winded up back where he started. Emptiness. He admits that he just didnt want to go on. At the height of spiritual bankruptcy, there is nothing left. So many folks who have had it all feel this emptiness inside them. Kurt Cobain comes to mind because he too was at this place. This place today finds many of us there as well - even with much less power, influence, and stuff but still equal being spiritually bankrupt.
If getting everything life has to offer doesn't bring happiness or peace or joy, what the point in living? Stick with me, I'm going somewhere with this..... Mel, Kurt and so many others got to a place where most of us NEVER will. Our fantasies make up their reality. Nothing in their lives satisfied them.
King Solomon 3000 years ago was the richest man on the face of the planet. He was very much like Mel and Kurt. He too had it all but inside he was empty. He desperately wanted to find something that brought satisfaction. Maybe you are on that journey in your life too. One thing in common here no matter how old or young you are ... "if" is the common ground.
I would be happy if...
I could be satisfied if....
I could get past this emptiness and loneliness if....
so in order to do that we fill our lives with wild varied kind of things... like...
I would be happy if....
I had a boyfriend or a girlfriend
I could have sex
I was free from my parents
I could have a close and loving family
I could get married and have children
I could GET my parents to love me
I could GET my parents to love each other
I could have enough money
I could go to the college I want to go to
I could be more popular
I could be happier with the people I love
I could relax and party all the time
Loved ones, how many people fall into these places searching for something real? Who do we know who are convinced that money, sex, grades, a boyfriend or girlfriend, popularity will make their lives complete?
How many people do you know who are looking for something worth living for?
I will admit that I have some empty space in my heart too. You dont have to be Mel or the king of Israel to be aware of it. Question is.... What are you going to do about it?
What is the one thing you need to ask God for today that would make a huge change in your life?
You can keep searching outside of yourself or you can look inward. You can just give up. Kurt Cobain gave up. Headlines that day on April 1994 read - Meaningless, meaningless all is meaningless and it echoed around the world. Kurt and King Solomon were in agreement with something - Nothing in this life will ever take away your emptiness, so you might as well stop looking.
The other thing you can do is look outside of this life. Mel came close to having the same ending as Kurt as he told shared during his interview with Diane Sawyer. The only thing that kept him from jumping out of that window had nothing to do with money, power or even something that was hiding in his heart ... He spoke about making the movie Passion of the Christ and how life was about faith, hope, love, forgiveness and Jesus Christ. That was the new reality for him and after seeing his life through different eyes - He can now live his life.
Ecclesiates 12:1 - Remember your creator in the days of your youth.
Mel is not a great role model or teacher for our youth, he is just a man we all can learn something from. As Mel looked out at his audience in his first interview after making that movie - he noticed the young people there and softly said - "I wish I had been more like you. I wish I had spent more time honoring God when I was younger."
I can so relate to those words because I too was chasing the dream most of my life. Its only been the last few years that I gave up searching to fill that emptiness. I feel as if today I am living larger than life now and its not because I have more stuff, more money, more close loved ones - its all because of Jesus.
Let me challenge you today. Before you continue your search for something to fill that nagging emptiness of life - and before you decide you're already a Christian so why bother, why not find out for yourself who Jesus really is? Let your life be lead from your heart and not by what you see?
It could change everything about the way you live the rest of your life.
Lord, show me something beautiful, something glorious, because I know YOU are behind it all.
Lonnie~
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