“What if you don’t find it?” It’s true that we’re a consumerist nation. Therefore, we’re always looking for the next big thing that will complete us. It was through a conversation with a dear friend Erik who was visiting this weekend that brought this to light for me. He was asking me how my transition was going and I was lamenting the lack of a friend like him in the area. Then, he had the nerve to ask me, “What if you don’t find it?” “Then I’ll keep looking,” was my response, but I knew full well this wasn’t the answer. Over the past day or so I’ve wrestled with this question and realized that I’ve transplanted this consumerism into both my spirituality as well as my relationships. Doing so, I’ll never be happy because there’s always something better out there and I’ll never be able to have it all.

One size doesn’t fit all. Living in the wealthy pocket of northern Virginia outside D.C., you find a lot of people who have much and are just put together. I think we all have those people in our lives and it’s easy to give into the temptation of trying to emulate what they have because it works so well for them. First of all, I’ve realized it probably isn’t working for them, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt for argument’s sake. Then, who’s to say that their church, their relationships, their particular relationship with God fits us as well? If it does, you may want to step away from the mirror and stop daydreaming. We’re all made uniquely and have to remember that fact especially in these areas.

Where are you looking? Assuming that we’ve not started dressing like, talking like and driving the same car as Jimmy or Sally, and we’ve decided we’re missing something crucial in our lives, where do we turn? There’s no supermarket for these needs in our lives. You may find it in church, you may find it at work, or how about while getting gas? Have we narrowed down our search too much? In our search, do we try to tie God’s hands behind His back commanding Him to provide for us in a specific way? Don’t you realize that God is both infinite and good? Therefore, He will not forsake you, but He has billions (maybe more) of ways of providing for you.

Why are you looking? Here was the shocker for me, but sometimes you already have it. God gives us so much on a regular basis that it’s easy to become desensitized to this fact and overlook the heap of what we already have. This is where the question “What if you don’t find it?” takes us. I don’t want to say that if we don’t find something immediately that this is the obvious answer, but it deserves a thorough examination. Yet, it begs a bigger question that I don’t think many of us are ready to ask.

“Can I be content with what I already have?”

Shopping and striving for the next great thing come naturally to us. That is the way we were made as Adam and Eve’s fall from grace so demonstrated. In light of that, the human race has spent its time speeding up the rat race of this existence procuring miracle product/relationship/drug after another in a progressively more rapid fashion. What if we stopped to think about what this says about how we view the gifts of God? What if we stopped to think, period? Friends, as I wrote last week we’ve been given everything for a godly life. In our consumerism, do we merely say it’s not enough? Or are we content where He has led us asking “What if you don’t find it?”