Is Something Missing?

…He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

Raised in a family that went to church every Sunday, I grew up hearing the Bible stories in Sunday School and attended youth groups through high school.  I learned a lot about Jesus.

After getting married, my husband and I realized there was something missing in our lives.  I thought we were both Christians at the time, but we met with a man at church who we thought could help us figure out what was missing.  He listened to us, asked us a few questions, and here was his conclusion:  We had both been in church all our lives and had taken in a lot of information about the Bible, but we weren’t giving anything out.  We were like stagnant ponds, he said.  He told us what we were missing was a job in the church. They happened to need Sunday School superintendents.  We were very young, still teenagers, but we figured we better take the job if that’s what was missing.  We did that for a couple of years and fulfilled our duties. But obviously there was still something missing!

After my husband graduated from college, we moved to another state for graduate school. We didn’t know anyone, and no one was expecting us to attend church. Away from family and the church we had attended, it became easier not to attend church at all.  There was a part of me that felt somewhat guilty for not being in church, but after a time, it became easier to just stay home on Sunday mornings and spend time with the kids.

After graduate school, we moved again.  I soon got acquainted with our new neighbor. Linda and I were driving together one day doing errands, and we happened to see a sign up on a hill for Cathedral Oaks Christian Church.  That started a conversation about our past experiences and why we hadn’t been attending church for several years.  We agreed that it was time for us to start taking our kids to church again.  A few weeks later, we did. 

Whatever I had been missing, I knew that first visit that the pastor had it. He was different than any other person I knew. He talked about Jesus like he really knew Him. The pastor visited me in my home a few weeks later.  I told him about my experience of feeling something was missing.  After telling him the rest of the story, he very wisely concluded that what was missing was not a job in the church, but a personal relationship with Jesus.  Attending church my whole life and knowing a lot of information about God and Jesus did not save me. The pastor explained that the Lord calls us to a loving relationship with Him as Lord of our lives, willing to turn our lives over to Him and follow His will instead of our own. 

After a couple more months of listening to his teaching, I realized I had never truly committed my life to Jesus.  It became clear that God was calling me to do that, to love Him and follow Him, whatever the cost. I came to understand that was what was missing all those years. A few weeks later, I made that decision to invite Jesus to be my Savior and Lord. I was baptized, and began a lifelong relationship with Him. There is a vast difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Him personally, His love, His forgiveness, His plan and purpose for my life.

It still amazes me how I could sit in church week after week in my early years and not hear the message of the need to be saved and have a personal relationship with the Lord. I had never been in a Bible study before, to learn God’s truth from His Word and apply it to my life.  My new pastor encouraged that and taught me how to study. I began to grow more in love with Jesus and follow His will for my life.  Thankfully, God promises that He will complete the good work that He has begun as we turn over our lives to Him (Philippians 1:6). It’s a process that will continue our whole life until we see Him in heaven.

More recently I discovered that there was still something missing. I’ll write about that next week! 

PERSONAL REFLECTION

Can you identify with the feelings I had about feeling that something is missing in your life, even if you thought you were a Christian?

You may have been a believer for a long time. Have you made that personal commitment to seek His will for your life and follow wherever He leads you?

Are you growing in your love for the Lord through studying His Word and getting to know Him more?

You can ask God to show you if there is more He wants you to experience in a personal relationship with Him.