We all have something we want in life. Something we believe will make us happy. Dreams, ambitions, goals, all for one end: to be satisfied. We all take different tracks in pursuit of this end, happiness, satisfaction, peace.  

My track to reach this end was simple –be better than everyone else. 

I wanted people to look at me and think “She has her life together. I want to be like her.” So I put a lot of effort into being successful, into being perfect. I poured my efforts into grades, self-improvement strategies, academics. I was extremely determined to prove my preeminence to myself and everyone around me. 

If I couldn’t be better, if people weren’t impressed and in awe of who I was, I wouldn’t –couldn’t – be happy.

And I was pretty good at being successful. My strong motivation and know-it-all attitude allowed me to excel academically and gain several responsibilities. Add that to me still attending church at this time. 

I grew up in a Christian household and kept up the persona of a good Christian girl –yet another tactic to be better. I was succeeding at success.  

In spite of all of this chasing success and perfection, I was miserable.

Instead of admitting I needed help, I distracted myself. I still didn’t want to need anyone. I did anything to get my mind off of the void that was becoming increasingly larger in my life. Anything to distract me from the reality that I felt isolated and alone, that I was imperfect and would never be better than everyone, and the biggest reality of all: my track to happiness, satisfaction, and peace was failing. And every night when I could distract myself no longer, these realities came crashing in. 

At the height of all this, my church got new youth pastors. I didn’t really care at the time. I’d been through several youth pastors. But these new youth pastors were different. They enjoyed reaching out and spending time with their students. They talked about God like they had this personal relationship with Him, and what intrigued me the most was that they were happy. But they weren’t perfect and didn’t even pretend to be better or super successful. If they weren’t getting their happiness from being better than everyone else, where were they getting this happiness from? 

I had to find out where they were getting this from. 

They explained to me that it was God Himself who gave them this happiness. He created us to have a close relationship with Him. But mankind, like me, decided that we were better off on our own. But then the realization set in, like it did for me, that it is impossible to be perfect. Instead of leaving us to deal with the consequences of failure, God chased us down and poured out His love by sending His Son Jesus. Jesus, who lived a perfect – I mean absolutely no mistakes – life, took the punishment of death to cover ALL of our mistakes so that a track could be created from an imperfect, stubborn, we-can-do-it-on-our-own people to a perfect, gracious, loving, kind God. All we have to do is come to Him. 

Don’t believe me? Hear it from Jesus Himself. 

In a book called Matthew in the Bible, Jesus says “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). I don’t know if you caught that, but the two descriptions Jesus uses for people who should come to Him are “weary” and “heavy-laden.” Not “perfect and successful,” not “those with great careers and the best grades,” not “the most popular or the smartest.” He calls the “weary and heavy-laden.” I don’t know about you guys but I fall into those categories pretty much every day. 

Success didn’t make me happy. And I’m willing to bet what you’re hoping will make you happy isn’t doing the best job either. Or if it is, it is incredibly temporary. Or it takes an incredible amount of your own effort and power to keep up. 

What we’re all searching for is not happiness but true joy. Because we were – are – made for more. We were made for a relationship with a God who fulfills every longing and in whose presence is perfect joy (Psalm 16:11). That’s what my new youth pastors had. Joy. And that’s what Jesus offers all of us.

So I encourage you, if you are weary and heavy-laden – and even if you don’t feel like you are – come. Come and see. You won’t regret it.