I don't know if it's world travel or romance, adrenaline or the pursuit of money, entrepreneurship, or popularity.
I don't know where you've traveled. I haven't read your stories or seen the pictures. But this I know-- one thing I continue to learn and relearn again: Wherever you've gone without Jesus, is empty.
Wherever you've been is meaningless without Him.
And all these photoshopped dreams you have of your future... traveling the world, and living the high life.. whatever your dream may be. If these dreams are centered in our selfishness instead of Christ's self-sacrifice, they will always fail us.
Whatever you are looking for, however hard you are searching, you are going to come up empty when your searching for the things this world offers to satisfy. And I know that's painful to hear, I know it hurts. It hurts my heart, friends, because my selfish heart falls so captive to the lies the world tells.
But I've traveled, I've wondered too--I've tried to be filled from accomplishments, achievements, work, or relationships, what other people said about me. I've journeyed through Alaska and Peru and Korea and Honduras- and it was amazing- but it was also lonely at times. It was great fun- but no one of these situations- was the answer to my lack of purpose in life.
Because I've never had joy or fulfillment unless I've lived by walking the paths of God. I've never known peace except for being in Christ's will. I've never been more excited than having the passion of doing God's work.
And I talk to adults and elderly people who have done it all, who have traveled, or become athletes, or scholars, or fallen hard for love-- and yet when you see them reflect- they will often tell you it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth the sacrifice, it wasn't their dream, it still felt empty.
And I truly believe that we can wonder, and travel, as much as we want. But until we come back to the heart of what it means to know Christ and His purpose, we will feel alone.
It's never too late to go back to this journey to the cross. It doesn't matter where you've came from, or where you've gone- whether doing things under covers, or escapism, or pride, or gluttony. Maybe it's just been small standards that have steadily been unwoven from your heart- until you are numb from the things of God. Wherever you've fallen short, God offers the promise of providing strength in your area of weakness, of starting a new good thing that He will carry on to completion.
And maybe you've never met Him, maybe you've wondered so far, but you still don't know Him. One thing you should know is that He knows you. And He promises to reveal Himself to us, if we would just surrender, if we would just search for Him. So maybe instead of traveling and career goals and relationship goals and bucket list goals-- we could actually pursue the one thing in life that matters. We could pursue Jesus. And pursuing Jesus could so quickly become the passion and purpose of our life.
I don't want to just be a wanderer anymore. I want to be a follower. I want to follow Jesus.