The personalities and staff at 98.5 Sonshine FM believe there is a powerful answer to the emptiness felt by so many of us today.

Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett put it well - "There's tremendous yearning out there. There are a lot of people on a variety of spiritual walks. Those in their twenties are really starting to see that the materialistic-only lifestyle is a fairly hollow old shell" (Alive Magazine, February 1998).

Most of us search for a solution to this yearning. When personal wealth and possessions fail to fulfil, there's the plethora of self-help and motivational products to try. Some work, some fail, some work for a time before their effectiveness fades.

We can even hope that future fame might bring some sense of significance into our lives. But singer / song writer Alanis Morrisette found fame failed to deliver what it promised - "It was touted as something that would raise your self-esteem and provide you with eternal happiness. Food would taste better, people would be more exciting, relationships would be great… I wish people could achieve what they think would give them happiness in order for them to realise that's not the way happiness can be found" (Reuters, March 8, 1999).

Sometimes instead of seeking the Void's fulfilment, we work hard to ignore it. Shortly after his death, Michael Hutchence' brother spoke of the rock star's constant need for 'external stimuli', like people, to distract him from the his lack of inner peace and tranquillity (Today Tonight December 17, 1997). Michael wasn't alone in his actions.

Our soul's-core longs for meaning, personal significance and a peace that transcends all problems and crises. "I want to shimmer, I want to shine, I want to radiate; I want to live, I want to love, I want to try to learn not to hate" (Shawn Mullins - Shimmer).

The Bible reduces our heart's longing to one sentence - "What a man desires is unfailing love. Better to be poor than a liar" (Proverbs 19:22). The Bible's fame is world-wide yet it's message is powerfully personal. "Without the Bible there would be no Bob Dylan. The book is full of powerful images, it's like a mirror - you read it and you see your face, sometimes distorted, sometimes clear" (U2's Bono - Juice Magazine, Dec/Jan 2000/1).

It is within its pages that the greatest story of all time is told. The Creator of this world longs to see the Void in our soul's filled. He has created a way for this to happen. In the original plan we were designed to enjoy deep friendship with God. But each of us has at some time decided to shut Him out of our lives.

The Almighty could refuse such an order but has decided to give us what we've asked for. Like any relationship, when you break it there is pain. The Void is the God-shaped hole in our lives.

Two thousand years ago a man called Jesus walked the face of the earth. The Bible tells us something history only wonders at - that Jesus was in fact the Creator's Son visiting earth calling us back. His mission was to restore the relationship that we had broken with God. To do that Jesus went all the way to a famous cross to die. The penalty for ignoring the Creator was our death. Jesus took this penalty for us… to connect us back with God for eternity.

God's remedy for the Void means accepting Jesus' death for us and putting God back in His place as Life-Director. It is a personal, definite and life-changing decision. "There's a God-shaped hole in all of us, and the restless soul is searching. There's a God-shaped hole in all of us, And it's a void that only He can fill" (Plumb - God Shaped Hole)

To talk more about the Void and its remedy, talk to us. Christianity Works explains in a little more detail how you can restore your connection with God.

Copyright 2000 - 2007 Sheridan Voysey

Related Link: Jesus Christ Only