February 16, 2021
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My friend Jim was young, but already a veteran rock climber. He was going to college only a few miles from one of America's most majestic mountain peaks...and one of the most challenging and dangerous to climb. He was excited to climb another towering mountain with a longtime veteran of those slopes. The mountain is actually part of the highest peak, but it's known as Disappointment Peak. It got its name from climbers who used that approach to get to the top of that ultimate mountain top. It's a tough climb, but you're inspired by the sense you're getting closer and closer to your majestic goal. And then, after a long, hard climb, you suddenly come to this chasm; a chasm that is uncrossable and thousands of feet deep. You thought you were on your way to the goal you were shooting for. Sorry, it's Disappointment Peak.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tired of Searching, Ready to Find."
A lot of people are climbing Disappointment Peak; a long road to what they believe will be the mountaintop they're looking for. But as many who have climbed it will tell you, it really does lead to disappointment instead of fulfillment. Of course, we're all looking for different mountaintops: the relationship that will give us the real and lasting love we want so much, or the accomplishment that will give us the importance, the significance we're hoping for, the religion or spirituality that will finally give us peace in our soul.
We're all looking for different things, but we're all looking for what will give life real meaning, love and fulfillment. Gail Sheehy became a best-selling author decades ago with her book, Passages. It described our life journeys in terms of passages from one search to another. Then later on she wrote about the generation that has shaped our culture and our values more than any other - the Baby Boomers. She said, "The search for meaning has become the universal occupation of the Second Adulthood." She said that this spiritual imperative grows stronger as we grow older. So our searching doesn't diminish; it just intensifies.
But maybe you're tired of searching. You ready to find? You tired of Disappointment Peak? You're ready to find what your soul's been looking for so long. Actually, there's only one person who can tell us what we're here for. It's the One who put us here. Of course, that's God. And in the world's best-selling book, the Bible - the only book God ever wrote - He reveals the top of the mountain we were made for...the reason He put us here.
In Colossians 1:16, our word for today from the Word of God, it simply says, speaking of Jesus Christ, that we were "created by Him and for Him." You were created by Jesus, you were created for Jesus, and you're going to have a hole in your heart until you have Jesus. He said, "He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35).
The Bible reveals that our heart is searching because we're away from the God we were made for. We were created for Him, but we've lived for ourselves, thus creating an uncrossable chasm between us and the God who made us. Uncrossable except for the cross - the cross where Jesus died to pay for our rebellion against God and make a way back to Him.
In the sentences that follow the revelation that we were "created by Him and for Him," we read that Jesus "made peace (with God) through His blood, shed on the cross." It took that sacrifice to provide a way to the God who is the love, is the meaning we've been looking for. Across that chasm between God and us is now a bridge - the cross of Jesus.
He's the end of your lifelong search. And the Savior will become your Savior the day you reach for Him and tell Him, "Jesus, you're the One I've been looking for. I've done my life my way, not Your way, and I resign. I was made by you and for you, and beginning today I'm yours."
You tired of searching? You ready to find home? Check out our website today. I think you'll find the way home. It's ANewStory.com.
You've wasted enough time on Disappointment Peak, but a climb up one more hill will take you where you want to be. It's that hill where Jesus died for you - that's where your search finally ends.