Are you searching for something? Do you feel something’s missing in your life? Or maybe something’s just missing in you?

Do you question every move you make? Or maybe you only question every other move. Do you try your best to be the best you can be…and still find that it isn’t quite enough to satisfy? Not enough for either yourself or those around you. Not every time anyway. Do you let others down? Do they let you down? Well, you’re not alone.

There are people everywhere who feel incomplete. We aren’t trying to be ungrateful for what we have. We just…know there’s more. Somewhere. Out there. There’s more. We know there’s something that we’re supposed to have, something that for some reason we don’t start out with. Some people go on life-long quests to find whatever it is that’s missing. Some people ignore the emptiness until they believe they’ve imagined it. And still others try to fill the void in every way they can think of, even ways they know aren’t right. Which are you?

I believe we’re born with the void in us. We start out with something missing. From the very beginning, we are incomplete. And once you figure out what that empty feeling is, once you become aware of that ever-nagging, ever-present, gaping hole somewhere deep, down inside you, there’s no going back. At least not for me.

I can’t pretend the feeling of incompleteness isn’t real. I can’t brush it off as if it were nothing, say it’s inconsequential, a figment of my imagination. I need to know what it is and why it’s there. I don’t want to live my life attempting to fill it in with temporary fixes, salves for the symptom of a deeper wound. (And failing miserably, I might add.) I don’t want to miss whatever it is I’m supposed to have. I want to find the missing piece. Don’t you?

Why do we feel incomplete? Where does the desire to be enough stem from in the first place? Why can’t we just be satisfied with what we have, with whom we have? When you feel like you’ve let someone down, why do you think that hurts so much? Or when they’ve let you down? It’s the same thing really. You want to be loved. Everybody wants to be loved. That’s what we were made for. And our greatest fear is to be denied that love, to be rejected.

Very nearly every insecurity, every disappointment, every fear can be boiled down to the deep-rooted fear of rejection. We strive to be enough for our families, for our friends, for our careers because we feed off of this innate need to be loved, to be accepted. Some people “fill” the need with money, with things, with relationships, with careers, with substances, with activities, etc. But there is nothing on this earth that can fill that need and keep it filled. We can’t earn the kind of love we need. And we can’t give it to others.

That’s why people say there’s no such thing as perfection. That’s why we let the people around us down, even when we try our very best not to. And that’s why the people we love most let us down, too. We don’t make it any better by putting these people up on a pedestal, praising them and building their image up in our hearts and in our minds. That only makes the fall all the more painful. And some people react to that built up image by wearing themselves out trying to fulfill it for us. We do both ourselves and our dearest loved ones harm by raising them up and putting them in a place they were never designed to be. There’s something broken inside all of us, and none of us are capable of fixing the break or filling the void formed by it.

There’s only one way to fill our desire to be loved, to really, truly, and permanently fill it. Consequently, there’s only one way to give that same love to those around you. There’s only one solution to this emptiness we feel, only one thing that can complete us the way we were made to be completed. And it isn’t chocolate candy or heart-shaped balloons, stuffed teddy bears or soft rose petals.

We were created to love and to be loved. We need love. But not the kind of love you see on television or read in a book, not the kind of love in a greeting card or even in our homes. We need unconditional love. Love that never dies, love that never ends. We need love that gives itself up for us, love that dies for us. We need love that never fails, never falters, and never leaves. No matter what. We yearn for, crave, perfect love.

Only one love is patient and kind. Only one love does not envy or boast. Only one love is not proud, rude, or self-seeking. Only one love is sacrificial. Only one love is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs. Only one love erases our past and pays our price. Only one love rejoices in truth. Only one love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Only one love welcomes us home, no matter what. Only one love is faithful. Only one love is true. Only one love never fails. Ever.

Only one love can fill our void, give us rest, and complete us. And it ran red nearly 2000 years ago. It will return. And when it does, I will rejoice. Until that one love returns, I will persevere. I will be faithful. I will seek love and I will proclaim it. I will live my life intentionally growing in love, learning every day how to love like I have been loved, how to lead others to fulfillment as I have been fulfilled.

I am no longer searching. I am no longer incomplete. I am no longer empty. I was broken and bruised, but I am being healed by God’s great love. And you can be, too. Don’t live life in the wheel of eternal searching or by trial and error. Fill yourself with the blood of Christ and know His peace, his everlasting, undeniable, unconditional love.

Love always,
Coralie