What Are You Looking For?
By JOE SIXPACK
A young man had spent his youth enjoying the pleasures of the world — both legitimate and sinful pleasures. Then one day he was in a serious car accident that put him in the hospital, badly injured with the prognosis that he might never walk or be normal again…if he lived at all.
Lying in the hospital bed, he had a lot of time to think. He began to realize how foolishly he’d been wasting his life looking in all the wrong places to find happiness through pleasures of the body. He promised God that if He healed him, he would spend the rest of his life living for Him.
God answered the young man’s prayer and did indeed heal him. So the young man left the hospital and built a shack out of old boards in the forest near a monastery. He would go to the monastery every day to participate in the Mass and receive Communion.
One day, many years later, a hunter came upon the shack and pushed in the door to see inside. There he saw the man, now old and bent and gray, kneeling on the floor in front of a crucifix in prayer. The hunter, surprised to find such a sight, asked the man, “Tell me, old man, what are you looking for out in the forest all alone?”
The old man slowly rose from the floor and looked deeply into his visitor’s eyes for a moment. Then he asked, “And what are you looking for, may I ask?”
“I’m looking for deer,” the hunter replied.
The old man said, “I’m looking for God.”
These two men are in the very same place looking for two completely different things. One is in the old man’s place when he was young, looking for the pleasures of the world…in this case the legitimate pleasure of hunting. The old man is looking for God.
There are two very different kinds of people in the world: Those looking for the pleasures of the world, and those looking for God and finding happiness in knowing, loving, and serving Him in this world. The world can’t give any of us a true, lasting happiness, because we weren’t made for this world. God made us to find true happiness in Him alone. As the great St. Augustine said, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
There is certainly nothing wrong with making use of the pleasures of the world, as long as they are the legitimate pleasures that don’t offend God with sin. God intends us to enjoy certain legitimate pleasures, just as any parent wants his children to enjoy good pleasures. But this story makes the excellent point that our primary purpose in life is to seek the knowing, loving, and serving of God. As Jesus said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well” (Matt. 6:33).
Before I became a Catholic, I sought pleasure in things. I sought pleasure in women and possessions and adventures. I had a thriving business that made me very wealthy while still in my twenties. However, I was never happy. I kept telling myself that if I could obtain the next business goal or financial goal I could finally have all I wanted and be happy. I pushed and I pushed until those goals were all that mattered and I became consumed by those things.
It eventually caused me to lose absolutely everything — my money, possessions, family, friends, and even my desire to live. It wasn’t until I discovered our holy and ancient faith that I found true happiness. God had to allow a lot of bad things to happen to me to break me of my desire for things over Him, as a man like myself is always tempted to put things before Him.
Here it is thirty years later and I’m completely broke at a time when most men are thinking about retirement. Yet I’m happy in my life. I’m deliriously happy. I’ve learned that when I’m most happy is when I’m sharing the faith with others, just like I’m doing now. I’ve come to realize that what the Church teaches us about happiness is the absolute truth. We can only be truly happy when we come to fulfill our purpose in life: to know, love, and serve Him in this life, so we can be happy with Him in the next.
You can tell a great deal about a person just by listening to what he says and paying attention to what he possesses. We Americans are spoiled rotten — too many years of prosperity have caused us to make gods of things. We want our nice late model cars. We want fine clothing. We want our little electronic goodies. We want lots of things.
No one is immune to the temptation. I often see people sitting in the pew before Mass texting to friends on their phones when they should be making a good preparation to receive their Creator in Holy Communion. Hmm. Is that phone a god they’ve put before Almighty God? That would seem to be the implication. The smart phone or tablet they have is a legitimate possession and object of pleasure, but it can become a god we place before God Himself…just like anything else in our lives.
Much has happened in our country and in the world the last several years, and little of it is any good. God has allowed many evils to befall us. He’s trying to send us a message, but I think most of us are too caught up in our own selfishness to see and hear the message.
Christianity is under attack around the world. More Christians — especially Catholics — are being martyred than at any time in our history. And we, here in our once great country, are not able to escape the persecution, although no one is killing us…yet. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s official: You no longer have a right to practice Catholicism the way the Church teaches us to live it. The government and the courts have as much as said so. Think about it.
The time is coming — and many people are saying it’s already here — when we will have to make a decision about God and our faith. Suffering on even biblical proportions may be on the horizon. What means more to you? Will you continue to focus on things, or will you decide in favor of God?
The time is coming soon for us to hear one of two things from Jesus, and you have to decide which you will hear. You can hear Him say: “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Or you can hear Him say: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
If you’re paying attention to world and national events, it’s clear to see the bad times are upon us. No new Congress or president can save us from the persecution that’s begun. No vibrant and growing economy can help us. The world and our nation are in absolute chaos, and Christians are facing persecution because of jihad, political correctness, and a very sick and perverted modern morality that enslaves rather than liberates. Now is the time to make new habits and get serious about following Christ through His Holy Catholic Church.
If you have a question or comment you can reach out to me through the “Ask Joe” page of JoeSixpackAnswers.com, or you can email me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
Hey, how would you like to see things like this article every week in your parish bulletin as an insert? You or your pastor can learn more about how to do that by emailing me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
