What Are You Looking For?

Here’s a fun life update: in my household, we are officially in the era of Sing 2. For the uninitiated, it’s a movie about animals who sing in a band. There are some pretty good songs on the album and some not-so-good ones (there’s a more extended conversation around the ethics of putting overtly sexual music in a children’s movie [actually not that long, don’t do it]). 

One song did catch my attention, it’s a cover of U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. In the song, Bono says just that, he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. 

This is a song about searching. In it, he details the various ways and places he’s looked for that something but couldn’t find it. It’s a song about finding yourself - really, the search for peace. Something we can all relate to. 

What Are You Looking For?

I recently talked to a guy in his 60s who said he’s still trying to figure out what he wants to be when he grows up. Many of us can resonate with that feeling. I’ve been back and forth on particular career pursuits and future endeavors for years. 

But I think what we’re all looking for is affirmation, peace, and identity amongst other things. Where can those things be found? Our hobbies, relationships, and anything else provides a false sense of security but always come up short. 

I think a good example of this can be found in Bill Goldberg. He is a retired football player and semi-retired professional wrestler. His dream was to be a pro football player and when that dream didn’t pan out, he fell backward into wrestling. He stated in a recent documentary that he was just hoping wrestling could fill the void of the thing he truly loved and lost, but it never quite did it for him. 

This is what we experience when we try to fill the God-sized holes in our hearts with things that weren’t designed to hold that place.  I think this is a difficult concept for us to grasp because generally speaking, we pursue good things. The problem is when we make good things gods, they cease to be good. This is all about the eyes through which we see.

Renewed Vision

We’re faced with a lot of decisions in life and that can be overwhelming. One bit of comfort can be found in the promises of God. Jesus said he would be with us always. That means no matter where we go or what we do, he is with us. Romans 8 reminds us as well that nothing can pluck us from the hand of God. 

The thing we’re all looking for has been given to us in Jesus. Safety and security. That means we don’t have to go searching high and low for something to fulfill us or someone to complete us. Instead, we get to live freely. We don’t let the ever-changing circumstances of life get us too high or too low. 

That doesn’t mean we live this out perfectly and never ask questions. Those will always be there. But it does mean there’s one less thing to search for in this world.

Bono says it beautifully when describing Christ: “You broke the bonds and loosed the chains. Carried the cross of my shame…” Right after that though he says he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. 

The answer is right there. In the one who broke the bonds and loosed the chains. May we have eyes to see Him.