Is there a hole in your bucket?

I've been asking the Father lately why the world is in such a mess. Why are people seemingly out of control and committing all sorts of evil?  Aside from the fact that we are in a battle with a fierce

enemy who hates us (a topic for another post), He's been impressing on me the following:  The more people there are who are searching for things that bring life, and the less they are filled, the more evil they will commit. 

But what are the things that bring life? What are the basic needs of the human spirit?  Three words came to me.  Purpose, Value, and Love.  All three are so connected they really can't be separated. Think about it. Everyone wants to be loved unconditionally. That's why there is so much focus today on romance and finding your "soul mate", romance movies, romance novels, etc. The divorce rate skyrockets when people find their current mate lacking.  When a child grows up without the love of his parents, he can easily become a monster as an adult.

Everyone wants to have value. Nobody wants to be merely an accident of nature, a freak happening when their parents got together one night. A random event that could have easily not occurred.  No one wants to go through life thinking it doesn't matter that they are here. This is why people spend their lives reaching for success, either in education, career, money, fame. They want to be somebody! They want the world to say. "Yes, you have value."

Connected with value is purpose. Take away a person's purpose and they lose hope. Take away their hope, and they no longer wish to live. Purpose gives people a reason to get up in the morning.  It's why they are here on earth. It adds value to their existence. That's why studies show that people who are gainfully employed are much happier than people living on assistance. People search for purpose in their relationships, their careers, the way others depend on them.

All these desires are good and God-given. The problem occurs when people take their buckets of purpose, love, and value and try to fill them up with things God didn't intend. They hold their bucket under the faucet of career, education, beauty, relationships, money, success and wait for those things to fill their buckets and then finally they will be happy and at peace.

Trouble is those things never fill the bucket. They actually erode a hole in the bottom and trickle out so that no matter how long you stand there with your bucket beneath the faucet, it never fills. So, then some people take their bucket to a different faucet. Perhaps it's a faucet of crime, robbery, pornography, rape, incest, lying, cheating, murder, hoping that these faucets will finally give them the value and purpose and love they crave.  And when they find their buckets still empty, there's always another faucet more evil and more depraved to try.

The truth is there is a faucet that will fill your bucket to the brim and overflowing. It will give you

value, purpose, and unconditional love you seek. And you'll never have to go anywhere else again. You can stop seeking, striving, doing, and just wash in the living waters.  Take it from someone who has tried many of the other faucets.... this one is the real deal.

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,And let your soul delight itself in abundance.  Isaiah 55:1-2