Monday, January 22, 2007
The plan was flawless. They told me that Cadillac Mountain was the first place you could see the sun rise in the United States. And my job, of course, was to provide wonderful memories and special experiences for my children. We were vacationing in Maine, and I was determined to let them have this thrill. Somehow, they didn't seem as excited about it as I was; must have been a maturity thing. Then why wasn't my wife excited? Anyway, I carefully checked the weather forecast every day until I was sure we'd have a clear morning to see the sunrise. I made everyone go to sleep early. I woke everybody up at 3:00 A. M. We were in a campground and I was afraid the kids would wake up complaining and waking up the neighbors, so I had a doughnut ready to stuff into each little mouth - including mine. I bundled everyone into the car and up we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain. I kept checking my watch, waiting for that magic moment of the scheduled sunrise, and the moment came. No sun. We waited and waited. Surprise! The weatherman was wrong. We saw a distinctly unmemorable cloudrise.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Problem With Mount Happiness."
We're on Indian reservations a lot, working with a wonderful team of young Native Americans. And the operative word you often hear to describe reservation young people is "hopelessness." They feel there's no hope of things ever changing. Not long ago, I was in a very different setting, speaking to some wealthy and powerful business leaders. Later, I spoke at a meeting of their wives. We were in one of the wealthiest counties in America. After I spoke, one of the ladies there said, "Ron, I can describe what life is really like here in two words: hopelessness and despair."
Amazing. Despair at what many would consider the bottom of Mount Happiness, and despair at the top. If you're at the bottom, you assume you're not happy because you don't even have a chance on Mount Happiness. If you're halfway up, you figure you're unfulfilled because you're not all the way there yet. But what if you're at the top and you still don't have what you thought was at the top? You either sedate yourself so you don't have to think about it, or you jump off. That's what the leading physician in a major city did a few years ago. He literally jumped off the highest building in the city.
I don't know where you are in climbing Mount Happiness. But if that hole in your heart is still there, if you know deep inside that something you were made for is still missing, then our word for today from the Word of God is for you. In Isaiah 55, beginning with verse 2, God says: "Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to Me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare … Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." It's God we were made for. It's God we've been needing all along. He's the only One who can fill the God-shaped hole in your heart.
And He's only reachable through His Son, Jesus. Because it took His Son's death on the cross to pay for a lifetime of running your life your way instead of God's way. He died for your sin so you don't have to. So your sins can be erased from God's book and you can finally experience the love and wholeness that only He can give you.
Ultimately, there are no answers on Mount Happiness. It's the wrong mountain. There's only one mountain where you can find what you've spent a lifetime looking for. It's called Skull Hill in the Bible. It's the place where Jesus died for you. When you surrender your life to Him there, everything God has for you comes flooding into your heart.
I encourage you to talk to Jesus today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." It's a step I'd like to help you take. That's really what our website is for, to provide the Biblical explanation of how you can belong to Jesus Christ. The website is yoursforlife.net. I hope you'll visit us there today. Or you can call to get my little booklet called "Yours For Life." The number is toll free. It's 877-741-1200.
You've been searching an awful long time. It's time to find what you've been looking for; to find Who you've been looking for. He's been waiting for you a long time.