I attended church this morning, and one of our pastors, we'll call him Pastor Chad, gave a great man's man sermon. He had my attention right away by quoting my favorite Western of all time, Tombstone. He quoted the scene when the character Wyatt Earp is contemplating taking on the villain Johnnie Ringo.

"What makes a man like Ringo, Doc, do the things he does?" he asks the famous Doc Holliday. To which Doc replies,

"A man like Ringo got a great empty hole right through the middle of him."

Then Chad went on to relate this quote to what the world has convinced us to believe, especially during the 'shopping season' - that the world and all its goods on sale can help fill that hole. I loved this analogy. And it is so true. All you have to do is pay attention to commercials, and how they advertise. They all tell you how you need the next big truck that can tow an oil tanker, or the next big shot gun that can hold extra shells. They tell the women of the world that they can buy this product to help them look more beautiful; they tell all the men that their product helps you burn fat and build lean muscle faster than anyone else. They are constantly trying to get you to feel like you are never good enough.

How true is this for all of us, if we don't have something bigger than ourselves? How many children, at a very young age, not only say, "Mine! Mine!", but also say "More...I want more!" It is a natural human tendency.

And yet Pastor Chad went on to say what we as Christians can have, because Jesus Christ fills that hole, if we let him...that is God's love and purpose. He went on to quote C.S. Lewis, who simply stated, "I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

Ask yourself, if you have ever felt like you had to have more...more money; more material things to be like your neighbor or co-workers; more enjoyment of your job; and yet, did you somehow figure it all out and obtained everything you ever wanted? If you can answer yes, I have everything and I got it all by myself - well, I just don't think you're being honest with yourself. Besides, if you did it all by yourself, for yourself, that means you ended up hurting someone in the process to get it.

But things don't work that way with God. He tells us time and time again in the scriptures that we were meant for more, and yet all we have to do to have more, to fill that hole in our hearts, is trust in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. That trust, and then the yearning to share that experience...that is what CS Lewis is referring to. That experience will lead us all to another world if we let it. God tells us there will be a new world when He returns.

I challenge anyone who reads this - watch the small trailer I pasted below. Although perhaps very few of us want revenge for 'being born' as Holliday suggests about Ringo, what do you let fill the 'great big hole in your heart?'