Good morning, my brothers! One of the biggest days of my career ended with TV cameras, a governor, and a huge crowd. The next morning, I felt nothing. Maybe you’ve been there too. Let’s go! 4-min, 58-sec read.
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Tom Brady was 27 years old. He'd already won three Super Bowls and was well on his way to becoming the most successful quarterback in NFL history.
And yet, in a 60 Minutes interview, he said something I've never forgotten: "I think, God, it's got to be more than this. I mean this can't be what it's all cracked up to be."
More than twenty years later, on that same program, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay confessed he'd found the same thing. "The lies I told myself were, 'Once we win a Super Bowl, I'll be happy.'"
Then he won one. And the trophy couldn't deliver what he expected it to.
Different men. Different moments. Same question. Is this all there is?
When We Finally Get There
Most of us will never win a Super Bowl. But I understand what Brady and McVay were chasing, because I've chased my own versions of it. Maybe you have too.
I remember the day we cut the ribbon on the new, permanent Wendell August facility in 2014. The governor of Pennsylvania came. Every news outlet in the region covered it.
It was the culmination of four and a half years of painstaking work recovering from the fire. And the next morning, I woke up empty…again.
The cameras were gone, the hoopla was over, and my family was driving back home. It was just me in my dingy little apartment, the one I rented during the rebuild, while away from my family. I looked around expecting more, and it wasn't there.
We tell ourselves life will finally settle down when the business reaches a certain number. When the mortgage is paid off. When the kids are doing well. When we retire. When people finally recognize what we've accomplished.
We can love the Lord, go to church, study our Bibles, serve others and give generously, and still quietly attach our significance to what we accomplish.
That's what makes this question so important for men like us. We can spend decades walking with Jesus and still wake up one morning wondering, Is this all there is?
Solomon understood. He had wealth, pleasure, power, and accomplishment on a scale few men in history have ever known. He built houses and planted vineyards. He piled up silver and gold. He denied himself nearly nothing his eyes desired.
Then he stepped back and looked at all of it.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
He got there. And “there” wasn't enough.
What Are We Really Hungry For?
Jesus answered that ache two thousand years before Brady ever put words to it.
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
Notice what Jesus didn't say. He didn't say, "I'll show you where to find the bread." He said, "I am the bread."
The deepest hunger of our lives isn't ultimately satisfied by something Jesus gives us. It's satisfied by Jesus Himself.
That changes the question. Maybe the ache behind "Is this all there is?" doesn't mean we need a different life. Maybe we've been asking our lives to give us something only Jesus can.
There's nothing wrong with building a business, winning a championship, providing for our families, or enjoying retirement. These can all be wonderful gifts from the Father. But gifts make terrible gods.
Eventually every trophy gathers dust. Someone else gets the title. The office belongs to another man. Our children build lives of their own, our bodies slow down, and the applause fades. But Jesus remains.
What Is Your Super Bowl?
Brother, what's the thing you've quietly told yourself will finally make you content? What's your Super Bowl?
Maybe it's something you're still chasing. Or maybe you already caught it and were surprised when the satisfaction didn't last. I know that feeling. I felt it the morning after that ribbon cutting.
The Father has been teaching me that the answer isn't to stop pursuing excellence, stop dreaming, or stop working hard. It's to stop expecting the mountain I'm climbing to give me what only Jesus can.
The same man who called it all meaningless also saw why.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Eternity in the human heart. That ache isn't a malfunction. God put it there, and nothing under the sun was ever built to fill it.
So maybe "Is this all there is?" isn't a question we should fear. Maybe it's one of the Father's most gracious questions.
Because when everything else finally proves unable to satisfy the deepest hunger of our hearts, we may discover that what we were searching for was never at the top of the next mountain. He was with us all along. And His name is Jesus.
Reflection
What's your Super Bowl? If you've already reached it, was it completely fulfilling?
Action
Each morning this week, during your daily time with Jesus, read John 6:35 out loud. Then tell Jesus one thing you've been asking your life to give you that only He can. If you'd like a brother to pray with you, email me at [email protected]. I'd be honored to stand with you.
Prayer
Father, I've been hungry for a long time, and I keep looking for bread in places that were never meant to feed me. Thank You for the ache, because it keeps pointing me back to You. Jesus, You're the bread of life. Be enough for me today. Amen.
-Will
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