I need something to grab on to, something to steady me.

A goal to focus on, a plan to live by.

I want just the right parenting philosophy that will help me have perfect children.

I need the right schedule to help me organize my day and make me productive.

I long for perfect fellowship with like-minded families living nearby.

I look around so desperately for something to cling to.

But I already know the truth.

The only perfect community will be found in Heaven.  Schedules will fail me—or I them.  And philosophies are just philosophies.

The only answer is Jesus.

The cross is the only thing to which I can cling.

But like Pilgrim, I get so easily distracted on my way to the cross.

I turn to one side or the other, to a book that promises answers or a group that sounds right.

Yet in the end, “they” always fail me. (If they haven’t yet, they will someday.)

He is the only Answer,  the only One that will never let me down.

Why do I so quickly forget to look to Him?

How can others so easily distract me from what should be my life’s one goal?

Why does it take so much to bring me to my knees at the foot of the cross?

How come I never quite get there until it’s almost too late?

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

–“Rock of Ages”, Augustus M. Toplady