God was not fulfilled by His own glory, but found fulfillment by becoming your brother and serving you.

Therefore you will not find fulfillment in pursuing your own glory, but by serving God by serving your neighbor.

Just as God created you to find eternal peace by belonging to Him, He created you to find peace in this life by belonging to other people. You won't find it any other way. But boy oh boy, do we try. Just consider what we teach our children.

We don't ask our children "whom do you want to help when you grow up?" We ask them what they want to be. We tell the to pursue the accomplishment path that will offer them the most glory and happiness.

We don't view college as a place to gain the wisdom necessary to better serve their neighbors. We view it as a place of self-discovery where they can unlock the gnosis of their career aspirations--a treasure so valuable that it's worth the crushing debt.

In young adulthood, we discourage them from marrying and having children. We encourage them to "find themselves," which means "worship yourself for a while. Figure out which treasures and sacrifices you most prefer leaving at your own altar."

We expect people to find their purpose and fulfillment by looking to themselves. Peace, joy, happiness--we believe these are all found by gazing into the mirror, by starting at your own face and whichever trinkets, accomplishments, and people amplify your own glory.

And what has all this yielded? Bitter, crushing loneliness. Depression. Suicide. Isolation. Vanity. Pride. Self-worship. Greed. Insatiable lust and perversion. Impending worldwide economic collapse from crumbling birth rates.

So if you want to teach your children something greater, if you want to prepare them to find true happiness in this life, recognize that you need to overhaul your entire worldview. You cannot find true happiness by living for yourself.

Follow the example of your Lord who found fulfillment not by gazing in prideful admiration at Himself, but by gazing in merciful love at His neighbor. Teach your children that happiness comes in sacrificing your social capital to befriend losers and weirdos.

Happiness comes not in making money but in giving your money to the poor. Happiness comes not in chasing pleasure around the world but in corralling daily bread for your neighbor.

Happiness doesn't come from building a house for 1. It comes from building a family. Happiness doesn't come from "finding yourself." It comes from serving those God has placed into your life.

If you don't find fulfillment in being a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a neighbor and friend, that isn't a God problem or a Christianity problem. It's a you problem.

To put it in blunt, Lutherian terms, you find these things unfulfilling because your heart became a pile of festering rot that was excreted by demons after they devoured it. And you will not find happiness by chasing after mammon or earthly glory.

You'll only succeed in giving the demons more to excrete. Wake up. Grow up. Look up to the cross and realize that you will not find happiness by doing the opposite of what the Author of Happiness did upon the cross.

Repent. Believe the Gospel. Stop living for yourself and devote your life to living for your neighbor. It will bring you immeasurable joy in this life.