We call our lake place Shalom (Peace). In 2017 we had a 45’ x 30’ heavy steel carport built for our 5^th wheel RV. Several years ago, it started. From around 7am to 9 or 10am there will be a ratty-tat-tat sound, much like a high-pitched jackhammer outside on the metal roof. You guessed it, it’s a woodpecker.

Why would a woodpecker try to drill into a steel building? The steel building has no life in it…no food. I have no idea, but it does point to our lives. For a large portion of my life, I showed up pecking at the world’s steel building of life. I ratty-tat-tatted life knowing if I worked harder…tried harder, I would find significance & substance. What I got was emptiness, disappointment and eventually failure. I discovered the world can never satisfy my longings.

Ever since COVID I have observed an increase in people’s anxiety. COVID was like a dash of cold water all over the world. We discovered what we took for granted could come to a screeching halt in a week. The following years revealed what we had once trusted could and would fail us. Like the woodpecker, “Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.” (Ezekiel 16:29). We wanted more and now!

Even though the treadmill is new, the concept is not. People have been running harder & going nowhere for a long time. “…indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.” (Habakkuk 2:5) Then in Habakkuk 2:19, it uncovers the truth to what the world offers, “Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”

Only God can satisfy our heart’s longing. “My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in Your Word.” Psalm 119:81 Jesus clearly told us in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Are you are using my old & failed strategy of “Have It My Way”? How’s that working out for you? Tired of going to bed empty and dreading to get up in the morning? Are you living in fear of what’s next?

Here’s the one and only answer. “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Here is God’s Promise found in Jermiah 29:11-14, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”

Only God can fulfill this promise. What will you do with it?