Finding Your Happily Ever After

"This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.  But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."  Jeremiah 17:5-8

As the married girl at school, a lot of other girls will come and share their relationship woes with me or seek my advice.  I mean, I'm married, I have all the answers, right?  At least not the answers that most college-aged girls want to hear.  I have successfully solved some of my friends immediate love crises, but deep down these girls are like plants trying to live in wastelands full of salt.  It doesn't matter how many times I suggest not living with their boyfriends, or going to church, or getting into a Bible study.  Most girls just keep searching in the parched places to find a man who can make their lives better.

Haven't we all made this mistake at some point?  At the point when we have allowed a human relationship to consume us so much that when there was a "drought" in the relationship, our souls shriveled up?  I know I have struggled with this and it's not a pretty ending.  But for people who love Jesus, there is hope.

We are told that those who trust in the Lord are like plants who can withstand the Texas heat.  No matter what happens, even if we don't get the water our soul needs, Jesus is going to be there to sustain us and help us bear fruit.  What a beautiful and encouraging picture!  If we stop relying on people to make us happy but instead put our confidence in Jesus, He promises to help us bear fruit.  Jesus wants to sustain us during the dry and hot times.  Are we letting Him?

In his book, The Pilgrim's Regress, C.S. Lewis wrote that "What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring."  Deep down we all desire a happily ever after. Only Jesus can give us that.  Let's stop putting our energy seeking for love and acceptance in the wrong places.  Let's seek our happy ending from Him.