A person who becomes a Christian moves from knowing about God distantly to knowing Him directly and intimately. Christianity is knowing God. Our desire for personal knowledge of God is strong, but we usually fail to recognize the desire for what it is. We eventually discover that our desire for that precious something is a longing that no lover or career or achievement, even the best possible ones, can ever satisfy. The satisfaction fades away even as we close our fingers around our goal.
Nothing ever delivers the joy it seemed to promise.
Many of us avoid the yawning emptiness through busyness or denial, but, at best, there is only a postponement. Some people believe that a better spouse, a better career, a better boss or salary would finally yield the elusive joy. To blame themselves to try harder to live up to self-imposed standards. Many people feel they have made poor choices or failed to measure up to challenges and to achieve the things that would give them joy and satisfaction. Such people are wracked with self-doubts and tend to burn themselves out.