When I recently misplaced my phone I went through the house trying to recall where I’d been and to retrace where I’d walked. In the words of comedian Jeff Foxworthy, “It was in the last place I looked.” Honestly, though, I looked in many wrong places before I found the right place. 

We live in a seeking, searching world, and though life in this context can be exciting and adventurous, it can also feel unfulfilling and ultimately meaningless. Each quest leads to another with no guarantee of ultimate discovery. 

We seek fulfillment in possessions and accolades. 

We seek affirmation in awards and social media likes. 

We seek escape in substances and destinations. 

We seek our self-esteem in the respect and admiration of others. 

We seek to bolster our rightness by showing others to be wrong. 

We seek comfort in the familiar and the similar. 

We seek . . . 

On the first day of the week a couple of millennia ago, some women visited a tomb in a garden - a place they’d been before in search of a person they’d long loved. It made perfect sense to them to look for this one in this place. Imagine their surprise when two angels asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” 

That may be just the question we and our world need to hear this Easter. Can it be that we’re still looking in lots of wrong places for meaning and fulfillment? What if we would seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, rather than letting it be the last place we looked? 

St. Augustine wrote that our hearts are restless until they find rest in God. This Easter, I pray that you find exactly what you’re looking for—fulfillment, purpose, love, grace, mercy, peace, hope, comfort, and rest—in the living Lord Jesus Christ.