A couple weekends ago, I had the amazing privilege to attend a girls retreat with some of my best friends. So many amazing memories were made! The title of the retreat was called Obsessed. It was based on a six week bible study written by Hayley DiMarco. The study was about being obsessed with the “things” in our life. Whether that is love, worry, fear, your laptop, cutting, drinking, shopping, or success. It was convicting and hard to hear, but it was so good! The last session was about being obsessed with God, who is the only one who can give you joy.
The one thing that I kept seeing was that all the things I mentioned earlier that some of us may be obsessed with, or consumed by, only leaves us feeling more and more empty when we don’t constantly have these things. If I am obsessed with “stuff”, I will always want the most recent iphone and I won’t be satisfied until I get it. Or if I’m obsessed with love and being loved, I won’t be happy when my boyfriend leaves my house to go home. It may leave me feeling lonely. And when we break up, I may feel worthless and empty until I find someone else to love. OR the more I shop and feel the excitement of buying new things, the more I want to shop to feel content. All these things leave us wanting more in an unhealthy way. Being obsessed with shopping may put us in debt. Yes, we may feel full at the time of our purchases, but when we become obsessed with that feeling we may always want to buy things all the time to keep us feeling sustained. AND America has made this so easy for us because of credit cards and online shopping!
Anyway...
After things like this kept coming up throughout our study, it became hard for me to think about why we don’t already know these things. We can look into the lives of celebrities or even our friends and neighbors and see it well. For instance, Justin Bieber... This kid is loved by so many girls, he has a lot of money and talent, and gets to do what he loves everyday of his life. Okay, so with that being said, why is he doing drugs? Why is he doing self destructive things? Why is he searching elsewhere for fulfillment? He has everything he has ever dreamed of, and there is still something missing for him and he is trying to numb or avoid the emptiness he is feeling.
Imagine being on stage in front of thousands of people who are cheering and screaming your name, and singing along to the lyrics that you wrote. Then imagine walking off stage after your show is over and you feel absolutely amazing, like nothing can stop you. After that, you get escorted back to your tour bus through crazy fans who are screaming your name, and you love every second of it! After this happens night after night for a while, you start to get tired of it. Your highs are becoming higher while your lows get lower. You want life to be a high all the time. And now when you walk off the stage. You’re dreading the walk back to your tour bus because you know it won’t last. The feeling wears off quicker and you feel more alone than ever once you get to your bus. So you look somewhere else for fulfillment while you’re not on stage. And when you can’t find fulfillment, you look for something to numb the pain.
I am not saying this is exactly what happened to Justin Bieber, nor am I trying to bash him at all! The kid has talent. I was just using him as an example. BUT so many artist have overdosed on drugs or try to numb pain with alcohol or sex. I’ve always wondered why. They’re living the dream, become hooked on drugs, and then overdose or go crazy?
Why?
What’s missing?
We see it all the time with artists. But yet, so many of us dream of being actors or singers because we see all the money they make or all the attention they get.
The lives of these celebrities should be clear examples to us that money and attention isn’t everything.
What’s missing?
What have they done wrong?
Where can they go?
Is it even possible to be fulfilled all the time?
Here is my observation:
They are searching this world for things to fill them and this world has nothing fulfilling in it that will last, because this kingdom is the devil’s! We see this in the bible in Matthew 4:8-9 when Jesus is being tempted by the Satan:
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you bow down and worship me.”
Satan tried to tempt Jesus with all of the things of this world, but Jesus knew there was something better waiting for him. There is nothing in this world that will make us satisfied all the time. We have to look for a kingdom not of this world, and seek after it earnestly with all of our hearts, and we will find it and be satisfied.
Look at the lives of the people around you. Look at your own life.
What do you enjoy?
What do you hate?
Did you think life was going to be something amazing once you reached your goal, and then when you reached your goal it was like nothing changed? Or did you or someone you know reach their goal, and then after a while the feeling wore off and they felt more down than ever before because their goal wasn’t all they thought it’d be?
Sometimes we put our hope in our dreams.
Sometimes we put our hope in people.
Sometimes we put our hope in things.
EVER.
If we put our hope in Jesus, we’ll never be disappointed because He’ll never fail us.
He is all we need, and He wants us!
While our eyes are searching the earth, Jesus is searching for us. Trying to get our attention through the things that have failed us. He finds us in our failed attempts to find ourselves, and will love us no matter how long we ignore Him calling our names.
We can try to ignore Him all we want, but our hearts know the truth.
So. Good.
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