"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm good, and you?"

"I'm good."

This is a conversation we all have with someone on a daily basis. I was never really struck by this until I asked someone that question just the other day and they responded with, "I'm okay."

Whoa. Normally we just say we are doing fine and go on with our day. Rarely do we ever think to say or hear someone express how they are truly feeling. Instead, we assume that everyone really is happy and okay. That conversation I had made stop and think. I asked myself that question, "How are you?"

Are you happy? Are you really, truly happy? For the longest time, I honestly did not know how to properly answer that question. Of course, I am happy. I have friends, I'm doing what I love, I have family who loves me... What more could I possibly want? How could I not be happy?

I constantly asked myself this question. Why? Because I knew I was not truly happy. There was this void, this emptiness inside me, and I could not figure out what it was. It wasn't until I was having a conversation with a group of friends when I realized that I was asking myself the wrong question. Asking someone how they are is so vague, and we have an automated response: "I'm good" or, "I'm doing well." If you want to really know what is going on in someone's mind, you have to ask a different question. When one of my friends proposed this question to our group one evening, we were all taken aback. We began seeing ourselves and evaluating our lives in a different light.

How is your heart?

Think about that for just a couple seconds. How is your heart? Emotionally, how is it? Is it heavy? Does it ache? Does it feel empty? Chances are, your answer is going to be along those lines. This question really makes you think, doesn't it? There is still a void in all of our lives that needs to be filled, and we feel that void in our hearts. It can be so easy to ignore that feeling and just tell the world that we are OK. It can painful to acknowledge the fact that we may have some brokenness within us that needs to be fixed. We turn to earthly things to fulfill us. We turn to other people and material items - things that are not promised to us for all of eternity.

Do you feel at peace? Are the things in your life bringing you peace and a lifelong fulfilling happiness? Or are they causing temporary happiness, and stress, and anxiety?

What we need in our hearts and in our lives is a promise of eternal love, and that isn't something that anyone or anything on this earth can give you. The only one who can give you that eternal love is our everlasting king.

You can live a life with that void forever filled. It can be forever filled by an everlasting love given to you by your father who loves you and wants that for you.

"The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness." - Jeremiah 31:3

If you have this emptiness in your heart, that right there is what you need in your life. Everlasting love. A love that will never leave you nor betray you. Maybe you have heard this all your life, or maybe you haven't heard this at all. It doesn't matter what end of the spectrum you are on. You are promised a love that is eternal, and a love that will fix your heart. How great does it sound to be loved so strong no matter the circumstances? To always have someone there with you to help you through the good and the bad? To have someone love you so much that they are there to pick up the pieces when someone on this earth hurts you? Doesn't that sound wonderful? Don't you want that?

How is your heart?

I want to challenge you: ask yourself that question. Pray to God to show you that everlasting love. Figure out what you need to do in order to fully receive that love from God, and ask him to show you that. Maybe you need to forgive someone. Maybe you need to confront someone. Maybe you were the victim and you need to let someone know that they hurt you, and maybe you even need to forgive that person. Whatever it is, pray about it. Pray for courage and guidance. Clear your life of the burdens and all the brokenness you are holding inside you and lay it all down in front of the Lord. Once you do this, you can fully receive that everlasting love God has for you. You can forever fulfill that emptiness in your heart, and that is so beautiful.