When was the last time you felt truly emotionally, mentally, and spiritually filled? Was it today? Last week? Last month? Last year? Never? Human beings have a deep need for satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness. When we start looking for fulfillment, we begin with things that are tangible and that fill basic needs: food, water, shelter. We move on from there to things like people, relationships, connectedness, physical touch, emotional intimacy, vulnerability, and purpose.
All of those things are wonderful, good, and necessary. Human beings were created to need all of them. Without them, we feel a deep longing inside of us. Yet, even with all of them, there still seems to be something missing.
And we were designed to feel like that! We are finite beings with an infinite amount of need. We were designed to want an endless amount of love, belonging, and value. Unfortunately, it is like we are leaky buckets. Other people and things and careers can pour into that bucket, but never to the top and never to overflowing. Even if everyone in your life spent their entire lives dedicated to trying to fill you up, it still wouldn’t be enough. So if we were made to have this deep, infinite amount of need and want for fulfillment, where do we get it?
Thankfully, we can get some of it from other people, the only problem is that every person is pouring into you from a leaky bucket and asking you to pour back in to them. And that is awesome! That is how we build relationships: I pour in to you and you pour in to me. But since that alone isn’t enough, what do we do?
We would need something that is limitless, something greater than our own need. Our leaky buckets need an ocean to stay filled. Something that is so deep, so wide that none can measure. We need something divine, all-encompassing, constant. We were designed to be filled with something infinite and the only one who has an infinite amount of love and grace and peace is God. We need God.
The greatest part about God is that He sees us and says, “Great, you have a leaky bucket? I have an ocean. How much do you want?” We can have as many buckets as we want. It’s never going to run out. And He wants you to access it, to be filling yourself. He made the ocean for you, it was all for you. When we have access to this love, we start to be filled in ways that we didn’t think we could. We start to feel fuller, more rested, filled with love, joy, and peace. So that when our buckets are empty and life is hard, we get to combat it with something that is more vast and immeasurable than anything we can think of. We get to access a love that is deeper than the ocean.