The Power Within

I've began chewing on a book that someone brought to me, asking if I would read and share my thinking about it.  I haven't read enough to know whether I could endorse it or not, so I'm not going to share it's title or author at this point.  But I do want to talk about a concept that is opened in the first part of the book: The power within.

The author talks about the fallacy of looking for answers outside ourselves when all the answer lie within ourselves.  I'm not sure exactly where he is taking this yet or if I could agree with him, but I do know that people often search a lifetime for love, happiness and fulfillment in the world around them and end up lamenting, “Meaningless! Meaningless!...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless" (Eccl 1:2).

The Book of Ecclesiastes chronicles Solomon's quest to find meaning, purpose, happiness and so on.  But "under the sun" as he says, or in the world, his search comes up empty or meaningless.  He built great projects, he acquire great wealth, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (or as one four-year old said, "300 porcupines") but nothing filled his longing, nothing satisfied.

What Solomon concluded is that there is an emptiness within us that cannot be filled by the riches or the passions found in the world - that contentment and happiness and fulfillment are not out there somewhere.  We will never fill that void with what the world has to offer.

What satisfies, what fulfills our soul is only found in the Kingdom of God, and that kingdom is not found in the world around us: "The kingdom of God is not something that can be observed.  Nor will people say here it is or there it is.  For the kingdom of God is within you" (Lk 17:20-21).

The Power to bring happiness, fulfillment purpose does not reside in the world, it resides in us but we are not the source of it.  God is the Source and we can only be truly content when His Spirit resides within us.  There is no meaningful thing that can be had in the world without God, for "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights" (Js 1:17).

The power for every good thing we desire is within as long as The Power is within.  Without God, one may feel superior and think he has it all, but the truth is "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Rev 3:17).  Jus' Say'n.