How to Find What We're Looking For

The moments of pleasure and happiness experienced by the atheist should be rightfully credited to God, who gave him the capacity for pleasure, and by His common grace exposes him to the sources of happiness. At the moment the atheist feels profoundly grateful, he is without knowing it recognizing a personal Being whose gracious provision has prompted those feelings of gratitude. The face that when he feels thankful the atheist doesn't know who to thank may be embrassing, but it says more about himself than God, who is in no danger of being voted out of existence by those who don't believe in Him.

In a fallen corrupted world, people keep searching and searching, like frustrate channel changes, never finding what satisfies (and often never turning off the TV to look elsewhere.) Ultimate satisfaction can be only found in God, the gracious giver of all good things. We were made for
Him and we will never be satisfied with less. Coming to grips with this is one of the great keys of Christian living. As long as we hold onto the illusion that we can find what we're looking for somewhere else, we'll never give ourselves fully to God. It's easier not to. And yet, in the long run, the easy road we choose proves to be much harder than the hard road we turned away from.

- from "Longing for God and Joy, from Augustine" by Randy Alcorn