Well, here we are, one week into 2011. Gifts received about two weeks ago, don’t seem quite as important as they did then. The joy and luster that shone from our eyes has dimmed a little. Resolutions that were firmly made have begun to slip a little. What is wrong? Why is this happening? Saint Augustine said it quite well in the beginning of his “Confessions”. He said, “Our hearts are restless, until they rest in Thee”.

We see something and we think, “…maybe this will make me happy”. And we go out and buy it. We hear others are happy because they do this or that. So internally, we think again, “…surely this will fill the void that I feel.” We try it also. We see people laughing and having a good time, so we imitate whatever they are doing. All of these are our attempts to feel good, to feel good about ourselves. They all seemed to be promising at first, but none delivered the hoped for relief, the desired well-being that we craved. And, once again, we feel that loneliness, that sinking feeling that we are missing something. That emptiness cries out, “…there must be more to life than this”.

Our hearts ARE truly restless, until we find the comfort, the relief, the calm that only Jesus can provide. Man’s ache that he feels inside, that craving to understand why he exists, why he is, that ache has been in man ever since he walked this earth. Some philosophers attribute that very craving as proof that there is a God. They contend that it would not exist, if there wasn’t something that would satisfy it. That craving can be thought of as existing in us because of God’s love for us. He put this in us to help us strive to find Him. Because of it, mankind continually seeks to make sense out of life and seeks to find what will make him happy.

In our search we experiment and try this and that. We look in every nook and cranny. It seems like everything that might possibly provide relief we try. All of this, just to find a reason for our existence, to find something that will fill the void within. Again, we hear the words, “Our hearts are restless, until they rest in Thee.” Only one thing will satisfy these needs within. To say that Jesus will provide the relief that we seek is not a complete answer though. Yes, we can recognize that His goodness and love will be the salve for our wounds. But it only becomes meaningful to us, when we bring Jesus into our hearts. With His goodness and love inside us, we finally feel the calm that has eluded us. Only until we crave the relationship that must exist between us and Him, only then can we say our hearts have found rest.