What Are You Looking For?

Finding pain or finding peace depends on where you look.

What are you looking for, and where are you looking for it? With information bombarding us from every direction—stories, hot takes, endless debates across every topic imaginable—it’s a wonder we can still tell the difference between what brings peace and what brings disruption.

My dad used to say, “You look for trouble, you’ll find it.”
How true that is today. Every outlet, big or small, every blogger, every influencer is fighting for your attention.

And what sells the most?

Victimology.

The message is simple: someone is doing you wrong… someone is limiting you… someone is to blame.

And how do we respond?
Yeah, they’re terrible. Something needs to be done.

So we take to the airwaves in our own small way. We post. We comment. We share our take.

But what are we really communicating?

When we broadcast injustice, we’re telling the world, “Here’s what is stealing my peace.”
Better yet, “Here is what I’m allowing to control me.”

God calls us to surrender worry, strife, and the challenges we face over to Him. Jesus said,

“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the log in your own?” (Matthew 7:3)

Yet it is human tradition to cast blame outward instead of searching inward.

The real solution is honesty and humility—with ourselves and with God.
He sees us flailing. He waits patiently for us to either tire out… or get honest.

The honest prayer sounds more like this:

God, I am not at peace.
I keep chasing things I cannot control.
I keep looking everywhere but to You.
Please help me seek You.

Brothers and sisters, I come up short too. I catch myself chasing the disrupter instead of peace. I click on all kinds of crazy on my phone, then later wonder why I’m irritated or agitated.

Weird how that happens.

If I go looking for outrage, I’ll find it.
If I go looking for fear, it’s available 24/7.

But if I look for God…
if I look for truth…
if I look for surrender…

I will find peace there too.

Because peace isn’t hiding from me.
God isn’t withholding it.
The door has always been open.

I just keep walking past it while staring at the noise.

And the beautiful thing?

The moment I turn around… He’s right there.

Not condemning.
Not shaming.
Just waiting.

Waiting to carry what I was never built to hold.

Closing Prayer

Father,
forgive me for searching everywhere but You.
I chase noise, arguments, and things I cannot control,
and then wonder why my heart is tired.

Teach me to turn around.
Teach me to seek You first.
Help me trade outrage for surrender
and anxiety for trust.

I want Your peace, not the world’s drama.
Lead me back to You.

Amen.