The Peace That Begins When the Search Ends

Dear Friends,

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the search.

The way we reach—outward—for the relationship, the home, the career, the money, the trip, the validation, the next shiny thing. We get one thing… and it satisfies us for a moment.

Then we search for the next.

And the next.

And the next.

It’s a cycle that never ends.

But what if the search itself is the sickness?

A Course in Miracles says, “Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls.” (T-29.VII.1:1-2)

That line has stayed with me. Because we do weep, don’t we? We hurt when the thing, person, or experience we chased doesn’t deliver the joy we hoped for.

So what does it actually mean to “look within”?

It doesn’t mean withdrawing from the world or giving up on our desires.

It means approaching life from trust instead of fear.

It means allowing the Divine to guide us, rather than forcing our own agenda.

It means remembering that everything in this world is passing—and the only lasting joy is the one that flows from within.

When we remember that, we stop clinging so tightly.

We stop making this life the end-all-be-all.

We begin to observe instead of control.

We trade striving for surrender.

Panic for peace.

The search ends not because we’ve found everything—but because we’ve finally remembered where it lives.

Blessings,

Ryan Justin Jackson