Where is the beginning of the trail to the More of life?

When I stepped across that line, the invisible, idealistic concept of adulthood, I was eager to find the life I had built in my imagination. My imagination was where I lived for most of my childhood. It provided multiple romantic ideas of my eventual adulthood. 

We all grow up with that automatic probing question from the adults in our lives. Especially the distant relatives we rarely saw, and our parents’ friends, almost every time we ended up in their presence. “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Questions like that kept the hunger for more alive in our minds. I could feel its existence, but couldn’t define it or point to it. I could only dream about it. My imagination told me I could find it if I worked hard enough. However, trying to force my life to conform to the American Dream in my head only led to disappointment.

But I could still feel the more there in my heart. It existed as sure as the North Star was in the night sky. It just didn’t point the way like the North Star. 

I have discovered that everyone has that hunger in their hearts. Some people call that ‘the God-shaped hole in our hearts that only fits God’s presence’. The trick is discovering the truth about the more. 

Eventually, the dream faded as disappointments beat down my initial eagerness. 

It’s about this time where we begin to evaluate our lives. Does it resemble the expectations of our young dreams of happiness? I think there are those whose lives approximated those dreams. But I expect many of us end up saying, there’s gotta be more, whether we say it out loud or subconsciously.

This is usually a crossroads for some. Some try to work even harder, or attempt a new life. Perhaps this time… There are, however, those who give up and accept their lot as just the way it was meant to be. 

What most of us who didn’t grow up in the church didn’t know is that someone was working diligently to make sure we never found the More. Distractions, dead-end dreams, futile treasure hunts, and bald-faced lies kept us from finding the right trail, the correct door.

My wife and I have talked a lot about how God was always there, even if we couldn’t recognize His presence or touch. I can only attribute my eventual finding of more to the fact that people were praying for me. Prayer removes the counterfeits and false trail signs so that we can recognize the truth of the More of our dreams, where hunger has been beckoning us.

The More of life, that heart-shaped object that fits the hole in our hearts, is only found in the sacrifice, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

.