Magazine Rack
The next time you go to the store, I want you to notice something for me. When you go to check out, it is very likely that you will find yourself standing beside a rack of magazines. Several of those magazines are devoted to one purpose, and that is sharing with you the misery that is taking place in the lives of rich and famous people.
And if you are paying attention, believe it or not, those pitiful magazines can teach you a lesson that can change your life forever.
Let me back up for a minute to make some sense of what I'm about to say.
In our lives, most of us hold on to a very simple but important belief: “If I just had everything I want, then everything would be great.”
When we’re broke, we say, “If I just had a bunch of money, then everything would be great.” When we’re lonely, we say, “If I just had a more loving husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend or just a bunch of great friends in general, then everything would be great.” Whatever the problem, our ideal solution tends to be the same: “If I just had whatever I want, then everything would be great.”
OK, now back to the magazine rack. The people on the front covers of those gossip magazines tend to be some of the most rich and famous people in the world. They have more money and more people who think they are great than most of us could ever hope to have.
But here's the problem. If our view of life is true, then those people on those magazines should be the happiest and most satisfied people in the world. If it is true that if we just had whatever we want, then everything would be great, then those people’s lives should be great!
But as near as I can tell, their lives aren’t great at all.
So hang on to your hats, Ladies and Gentlemen, because if we are paying attention, those silly, gossipy magazines are about to teach us a life-changing truth.
Those magazines teach us that getting everything you want does not make life great. To the contrary, we have example after example after example of people who have gotten everything they ever wanted, and then piece by piece destroyed their entire lives.
FACT: Getting everything that you want can never make your life great.
And that leaves some of us at a bit of a loss, because everybody wants a great life. So if getting everything you want is not the path to a great life... what is?
In the Bible, there is an old song called Psalm 119, and one of its verses sheds some light on this question of how to make your life great. Psalm 119, Verse 32 says:
“I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”
If you want a great life today, the truth unexpectedly printed on the front of every gossip magazine in America is that you will never find it by chasing after the things that you hope will make you happy. Even if you get everything you want, that stuff will never make your life great, and it may very well destroy you.
If you want a great life today, then what you need to do is seek the freedom that comes within the life that God has planned for you. Jesus died for your sins to set you free to live a glorious life with Him and for Him. And I hope that today is the day that you get started.