(When the Soul Remembers God)
There are moments in life when the noise finally settles…
and the questions we’ve kept buried begin to rise.
Maybe it happens late at night when sleep won’t come.
Maybe during a long commute when the mind has too much room.
Maybe in a moment when everything looks fine on the outside —
but inside, something feels hollow.
And the heart whispers:
“Why am I here?
Does my life really matter?
Is this all there is?”
We rarely speak those words aloud.
We stay busy. We joke. We keep moving.
Because we’re afraid of what stillness might reveal.
Not long ago, someone I love more than I can say — someone who has done everything right by the world’s standards — called me in a moment like that. He’s forty-one. A respected leader in his field. People depend on him because he’s steady and smart and capable.
But that day, something inside of him — something deep — broke through. And through tears he said:
“I’m trying to find purpose and meaning in all of this.”
Not drama.
Not weakness.
Just honesty.
The kind of honesty most of us are afraid to admit.
I sat with his words long after the call ended.
Because I realized:
this is not his struggle alone.
Every human heart knows that ache.
That longing for life to be more than survival,
more than waking up and doing it all again tomorrow.
Solomon — a man who had everything — said it too.
He explored every pleasure, every accomplishment, every path success offered…
and when he held it all in his hands, he found his hands were still empty.
So he wrote:
> “Everything is vanity and futile — a vapor.”
(Ecclesiastes 1:2, AMP)
Not pointless.
Just not enough.
But in that same book, Solomon revealed a beautiful and hopeful truth:
> “He (God) has planted eternity in the human heart [a sense of purpose, a divine desire which nothing under the sun can satisfy].”
(Ecclesiastes 3:11, AMP)
That longing for more —
is God’s fingerprint on your soul.
The emptiness we try so hard to cover up…
is actually evidence that we were made for Someone eternal.
That restlessness you carry?
That is not your flaw —
it’s your design.
Yet… instead of listening to that ache…
We distract ourselves.
We fill our calendars.
We fill our hands.
We fill our minds.
We make sure the TV is always on,
the music is always playing,
the schedule is packed tight…
Because silence can feel like a mirror.
And mirrors can be too honest.
But what if the ache is not a threat?
What if the ache is an invitation?
What if the longing that keeps returning is God saying:
“There is more.
Don’t settle.
Come closer.”
Jesus once looked out at a crowd of weary people —
people who were overwhelmed, disappointed, and tired of pretending —
and He didn’t give them a ten-step plan.
He simply said:
> “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
(Matthew 11:28, AMP)
Not “come to church” — though church can help.
Not “come to religion” — though faith is vital.
But Come. To. Me.
Relationship — not performance.
Presence — not pressure.
A Savior — not a system.
There are stories in Scripture where Jesus makes this so real.
A man named Zacchaeus — hiding up in a tree because he felt unworthy and unwelcome — hears Jesus call his name. Not from a distance. Not with judgment.
“Zacchaeus… hurry and come down.
I must stay at your house today.”
(Luke 19:5, AMP)
Jesus doesn’t wait for us to reach Him.
He comes to where we are.
A Samaritan woman — drawing water alone in the heat of shame and disappointment — finds Jesus sitting right where she would pass.
He looks into her heart and speaks to the thirst beneath her thirst.
He offers water that fills the soul… not just the bucket.
Meaning doesn’t arrive when life finally improves.
Meaning begins the moment we admit:
“I’m thirsty…
and I need more than what I’ve tried.”
I like to think of it this way:
Years ago, I had a radio that only played static.
No matter how I turned the dials — nothing but noise.
I almost threw it away.
One day, I bumped the knob just slightly…
and suddenly music filled the room.
The radio wasn’t broken.
The signal was always there.
It just needed tuning.
God is not silent.
God is not far away.
God is broadcasting love into your life every day.
Sometimes all it takes is
one prayer…
one quiet moment…
one tiny shift of the heart…
…for His presence to come alive to you.
Your ache — your longing —
that is the little nudge.
It is God saying:
“Don’t give up.
I am nearer than you think.”
The tears are not a sign of collapse. They signal a sign of awakening.
A restless heart isn’t dying…
it’s being reborn.
And if you feel that stirring in you —
that quiet awareness that life should be more —
then hear this:
You’re not falling apart.
You’re being called forward.
God is touching your soul.
And He is inviting you home.
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When Jesus invites us to come to Him, He isn’t asking us to change ourselves first. He is asking us to trust that He already knows us — better than we know ourselves — and He still wants us. The God of the universe is not saying, “Fix your life, then return.” No… He is saying, “Return, and I will heal your life from the inside out.”
The Amplified Bible expresses God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:13 so beautifully:
> “Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
A deep longing. A vital necessity. That is how Scripture describes the soul’s search for God. Not a hobby… not a phase… not something optional. Something as necessary to us as breath. Something planted in us by the very One who made us.
So when a man sits on the edge of his bed at the end of a long day and says, “I thought I’d feel more alive than this,” he is not complaining — he is responding to eternity calling his name.
When a heart reaches a point where distractions no longer work… something holy is happening.
And this is what I want my son — and anyone like him — to know: The longing you feel is not the absence of God. It is the presence of God, waking your soul. You are not drifting away — you are being drawn in.
When he cried and said, “I’m trying to find purpose and meaning in all of this,” that wasn’t a breakdown. That was a breakthrough. That was God saying, “Son, you were made for more than you’ve settled for.” That was God putting His arms around him… embracing him… whispering a gentle promise:
“I see you. I’m here.
You matter. Don’t give up.”
And perhaps you’ve felt moments like that too — moments the heart becomes too honest to pretend anymore. That is not weakness. That is the place where God does His best work.
There’s a passage in Psalm 34:18 (AMP) that says:
> “The Lord is near to the heartbroken and He saves those who are crushed in spirit,”
those who feel worthless or without hope.
He is near… not to the ones who feel strong… but to the ones who feel like they’re falling apart.
The ache, the restlessness, the quiet questions — they are God’s knock at the door of your heart.
And you don’t need to have the words or the plan or the confidence. You only need to hear the knock.
For some, the journey begins with a simple sigh:
“God, help me.”
For others, it begins with a thought that appears out of nowhere:
“Maybe there is more.”
And I believe…
for at least one person here today…
it began with a phone call where tears finally spoke what the soul had been carrying for years.
Those tears were sacred.
That moment was holy.
God was closer than breath.
And He still is.
We sometimes imagine that if God really loved us, we would never feel the ache at all. But maybe the ache is precisely how love gets our attention. Maybe the hunger for meaning is how God rescues us from a life too small for the soul He placed inside us.
Romans 8:26 (AMP) says:
> “The Spirit… comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness.”
Meaning:
Even when all you can offer God is a tearful sigh…
the Holy Spirit prays on your behalf.
Even when the only word you can find is, “Why?”
He holds your heart steady.
Even when you don’t know what you believe…
He believes in you.
You are not a project God is irritated with.
You are a child God refuses to lose.
And so maybe the question is not, “How do I find God?”
Maybe the real question is…
“Will I stop running long enough to be found?”
God has been pursuing you since the day you were born. Through kindness. Through beauty. Through relationships. Through moments of stillness. Even through the pain.
Especially through the pain.
Sometimes the most merciful thing God does…
is allow the temporary to fail us…
so the eternal can finally reach us.
He loves you too much to let you settle for less than Him.
So if your heart feels tender right now…
if you sense a softness in the air that wasn’t here before…
if thoughts of God feel strangely close instead of far…
Just recognize it for what it is.
This is God putting His arms around you… embracing you.
This is God saying:
“You’re not lost. You are loved.
You’re not alone. I’m with you.
You’re not hopeless. You are homeward bound.”
You don’t need a speech.
You don’t need answers.
You just need to respond to the One calling your name.
So let me say this very gently:
At the awareness of this moment… just say yes to the still, small voice inviting you to come home.
Yes to hope.
Yes to belonging.
Yes to the God who has been chasing you with love.
There’s a verse in Revelation 3:20 (AMP) where Jesus says:
> “Behold, I stand at the door [of the church and continually knock]; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in.”
He doesn’t kick down the door.
He knocks.
He waits.
He whispers your name.
And when you say yes — even quietly, even trembling — He enters. He fills the emptiness. He restores what you thought was lost. He renews the purpose you thought you missed. He builds meaning into the very places where you once felt nothing at all.
You don’t need to know the destination yet.
You only need to take His hand.
He will guide every next step.
And when you wake up tomorrow… the questions may still be there.
But now — you won’t be facing them alone.
Because the God who planted eternity in your heart…
has begun bringing eternity into your life.
So if your soul is reaching right now — let it reach.
If your heart is stirring — let it stir.
If tears come — let them fall. They are holy water.
Just say yes.
And let God take care of the rest.
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Prayer
Father… thank You for the ache that tells us we were made for You.
Thank You for the longing that won’t let us settle for less than life with You.
For every son and daughter here who feels lost…
wrap them in Your embrace.
Let them feel Your nearness.
Whisper to their hearts that they are Yours.
Give them courage to say yes today…
and lead them gently home… one step at a time.
Amen
