The mental health of our country is terrible. Too many are turning to drugs (prescribed and unprescribed), food, porn or other addictions to try to feel better.  And it doesn’t look like we are doing anything to improve it.  Instead, AI is continuing to deplete our individual wisdom, our thought, and our human interaction.  Our devices take away our quiet and our ability to sit in silence, and think and, more importantly, listen.

We are all filled with an aching hole.  A hole that cannot be filled by anything in this world. No food, drug or sex will fill it. All of the things that the world markets to us on TV, on our devices, on the billboards, are useless, to what we truly ache for.

And the ache is not new to this world. Roughly 3,000 years ago, this Psalm was written:

As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, the living God.

Psalm 42:2-3

Even Jesus knew the ache, as He hung on the cross, 2000 years ago, among His final words, He said: “I thirst.” John 19:28

We are made by God, for God. He formed us in the womb.  The aching hole is our ache and longing for God. Our soul, our being, longs to connect to God, our Father, our Creator, the one who loves us, the one who loves you and me, individually and fully. The one who loves us so much that he sent His Son to die for us so that we might live — that we might believe — that we might turn to Him and fill our aching hole.

God is missing in our lives.  He is missing in our hearts.  He is missing in our thoughts.  Missing… and yet… He is right there.  Right beside us.  He is whispering to us, “I love you, I am here.  Turn to me.”  But sometimes (and maybe most of the time) we are too busy, too consumed by the media, devices and distractions of the day, to listen, to hear Him, to feel His presence.

Jesus told us: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.” John 7:37

We all thirst! Jesus also thirsts, He thirsts for us. He longs to share His love with us.

Stop what you are doing right now. Put down your phone. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes for just a moment and say: “God, I thirst for you. Jesus, I thirst for you.” Sit in His arms. And breathe Him in. Tell Him you long for His waters, His love, to wash over you, to clean you and to fill you.

O God, you are my God—it is you I seek! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, In a land parched, lifeless, and without water. I look to you in the sanctuary to see your power and glory. For your love is better than life; my lips shall ever praise you!

Psalm 63:1-4

Lord, open our ears and our hearts.  Help those who are desperately trying to find joy in drugs and porn and other vices or addiction to hear you, to turn to you.  Help me to turn to you.  To choose you over my devices.  To spend time in the quiet and listen for you. God, I thirst for you. Jesus, I thirst for you. I long for your waters, your love, to wash over me. To wipe me clean of the distractions and the evil around me, to fill my aching hole and my emptiness. Let me drink from your fountain of love, and I will be satisfied.