The Missing Piece

Have you ever heard a sound byte on the radio or read a short paragraph in a book or heard one passage of Scripture spoken from the pulpit that seemed to wake you up and grab you by the throat? I certainly have at times. It happened to me again yesterday.

I was driving home after working out and running by the store to get stuff for dinners. A preacher named Tommy Nelson spoke for about a minute on the radio -- and the Spirit of God suddenly made life so clear from what Tommy said. He quoted the great Christian philosopher from the last century, Francis Schaeffer (whose books had a profound impact on me when I was in Bible school 25 years ago). Schaeffer was describing the life of King Solomon, who had "everything" in life. No one had ever acquired such wealth, had so much wisdom or had experienced the amount of pleasure this man had. He seemed to have it all.

If Solomon had it all, then why did he describe his pleasure-filled life this way?:

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. -- Eccl. 2:17

Nelson closed his message by pointing out that none of the pleasure and wisdom and riches made Solomon complete and happy -- because of the missing piece: the Lord God.

As I pulled my truck into our garage, thinking about this brief yet potent message, God seemed to give me this epiphany: so much of my life has been trying to find satisfaction in this life -- "under the sun," as Solomon describes it. O, I love the Lord and read His word and pray every day. I'm always at church. However, in some very subtle ways I have too often sought happiness through my family, the house I lived in, the place where I worked.

Okay – confession time again. A few years ago I wanted so much to get a certain type of house in a particular neighborhood. And finally we found such a house. And we moved in. And it was really exciting for us – at least for a while. And then I recall this profound disappointment in my heart. I started to see the flaws in the house. One room didn’t seem big enough. The air conditioning and heat didn’t flow quite like I wanted it to. It no longer seemed to be the "ideal house."

As I look back on that experience, I now view that disappointment as a wonderful gift from God. Because He loved me too much to allow me to be deeply satisfied in something other than Him. More than anything, I need Him.

So I come back to that radio broadcast late yesterday afternoon. It gave me such clarity, such perspective on this life. Without the living God being at the very heart of my life, I will be continually dissatisfied. Discontent. Incomplete. He is the missing piece that only can bring us true peace. And that is enough. Because the bottom line is that He is all I need.

Jim