While staying at a backpackers hostel last month, we met a series of young people wandering throughout Southeast Asia on some adventure to “find themselves.” Each person had their own story… my girlfriend of seven years just broke up with me, I flunked out of college so figured I’d use my money saved up to travel, my best friend and I got in a fight, or I’m a school teacher on summer vacation and have nothing to stay at home for. While each story came with its own losses, failures, and heartbreak, the one thing that remained constant throughout each of them was the concept of loneliness. They left home, whether that is from Australia, Europe, or the States, and came across the world looking for something, only to find that they were just as lonely in Asia as they were at home. I could see the desperation in their eyes as they sat across from me eating breakfast at our hostel. They were desperate for someone to talk to, for someone to care about how they are doing, for someone to love. To their dismay, they had discovered that traveling was not going to cure the void or the heartache. No amount of “seeing the world” was going to make them feel whole. So, then, what is the solution?
I’ve seen this concept among so many young people of my generation who are looking to “find themselves” — to figure out their purpose on earth and why they are here, to discover what they are passionate about, to find their future soul mate, or any other variation of searching for significance.
The real fact of the situation is that travel isn’t the answer. Seeing the world isn’t going to solve everything. Yes, your horizons will be broadened. Yes, your eyes will be opened to how blessed you actually are in your comfortable home with electricity, running water, and air conditioning, Yes, you will get to meet some really cool people from all over the world. But that deep, deep longing for significance will not be found.
So, dear lonely backpacker, all I can say is that I’ve found my answer. I found the solution to my search for significance. His name is Jesus Christ, son of the living God. You aren’t going to find yourself by leaving. You are only going to find yourself when you find Jesus. You are only going to find yourself when you lay down your life daily in service of the One who laid down His life for you. It’s an extraordinary thing … the fact that by losing yourself you will find yourself. It seems so contradictory to what the world says: that by success, power, and money will you feel significance. And it is contradictory. The Kingdom of the God is upside down, or rather, as I see it, right-side up.
Will you join me and leave the searching behind for a life full of reckless abandon, abundance, joy, and peace?
