A hole in my heart for God
I grew up hearing that every person has a hole in their heart that only God can fill. I never understood that phrase even though I became a Christian at an early age. It isn’t a phrase you even hear any more, which most likely means I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand it. However, it wasn’t a lie just because I didn’t understand it.
I never felt a hole– until last night. Sitting watching a secular movie of violence, I finally got it.
Most movie themes include a hero and a villain, and the one last night did as well. It was the classic story of good versus evil. In this movie, the evil was the Vice President of America and the CIA, both of which are supposed to stand as beacons for truth and honest righteousness.
This movie wasn’t a Pygmalion story line; it was the true good versus evil story. However, even the Pygmalion story line, a commonly recurring one which includes a weak girl rescued and transformed by a strong, saving, instructing man, fits the mold of looking for a hero. That theme, and others involving a hero, has been repeated almost endlessly in our theaters and works of fiction around the world.
Why? I think, because we are all looking for a hero, dare I say Savior? Perhaps our longing for a hero is what makes the hole in our heart as we suffer years of disappointment, checking out person after person for hero qualities and actions.
Psychologist recently reported (again) that mankind’s top two desires are for security and for significance. I believe that mankind longs for a rescuer, someone to protect us. Someone to be the white knight riding to our rescue when facing some mountain of obstacles—a tsunami, an alien attack, a leader turned dictator/murderer, job loss, foreclosure, the SAT, you get the picture. We love to see the strong hero arrive on the scene, clean things up, protect us from the damage, making it all right.
Not all of the movie or book heroes are fiction. Many portray strong heroes who have truly done valiant things.
To be a hero, is it enough to do one act of valiance? 100 acts? 1000 acts of good? What is enough? Is there a hero on this earth who will always choose to do right? Can mere man (or woman) fill the hole in my life search for a hero to provide security for me? Is there someone walking on the planet now who can fill the hole in my heart which longs for a hero to provide my security.
People can be heroic, but only sometimes, not 100% of the time. In fact that is the worst sort of villain, the one who was a hero turned selfish or weak or incompetent or dead. As I see it, there is only one hero of heroes who is valiant 100% of the time and His name is Christ Jesus. He alone is able to ride into our lives, our situations, 100% of the time and clean them up.
He is wisdom; He is strength and He is love. Those aren’t attributes He holds occasionally. He is wisdom, strength and love in full measure.
When He arrives on any scene, His cleansing agent is always the same, His blood, which is the magical saving agent in the drama of our real lives.
I personally can be loving, sometimes. I can be wise, sometimes. I can even be strong, sometimes. There are many people who can be loving longer or more deeply than me. There are many who can be wiser than me and most are stronger. But they can’t do it 100% of the time, every time.
Just like the missing ape/man link of evolution, this hero man hasn’t been found unless you know Jesus Christ. And He once walked the earth, sharing His love, wisdom and strength. The coolest villain He ever conquered was death and He was able to conquer death for us each because He had already had His victory over sin. He lived 32 years on earth and He was without sin, He knew no sin.
His victory over death made every good versus evil movie obsolete as death no longer is a foe to be feared. He conquered death by conquering sin.
By conquering sin, Jesus had the authority over death to resurrect after three days in the grave. I don’t know what He did for those three days in the grave, but I suspect it has something to do with Him acting as the white knight –perhaps saving those who had died before Him.
You may not understand the weakness of my personality which gives rise to my longing for security—and thus for a Savior, a hero on a white horse, but I suspect someday, when you reach the end of yourself or your resources, you will. I pray that moment isn’t at your death, because no one knows the day or the time of their death. That might not leave you enough time to acknowledge my hero Jesus and to ask him to rescue you.
When it is all said and done, I wish for you insurmountable obstacles which will force you to face your need for a hero too and to see the hole in your heart.