When I watched Bruce (Caitlyn) Jenner being interviewed by Diane Sawyer, my heart was filled with compassion for him. You could see the inner turmoil and wrestling of his soul. He lived in a man's body but felt female. My prayers and heart went out toward him and his struggle.
But if we are honest with ourselves, there is not a human alive that has never felt self-doubt or insecurity or confusion about their place in the universe. At some point, we all look at ourselves and wish we were someone else. We have those moments when we feel like an outsider and a fraud. We think, "Everyone else is normal and I am not." These feelings are especially true in childhood and during the teenage hormonal years.
But the Bible says no one is normal. We're all broken. Since the Fall of Adam and Eve, we have all inherited a broken world and live with a damaged inner nature. We are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). But our present world does not match our inner dreams. We know something is wrong but don't know how to fix it.
So we go on a search. We spend our lives looking for that "thing" that will make us truly happy and bestow on us peace and give us purpose. And we seem to move from one pursuit to another, looking for the "missing piece" in our life. We pursue love relationships because we think "if I can find 'the one' then I'll be happy." But we soon discover that "the one" is just as broken as we are.
So we think the American Dream will surely work. "If I get enough money and stuff and toys, then I will be happy." But that happiness lasts as long as a new car smell. Some will consider, "Maybe a pill or a drink will make me happy. It's not called 'happy hour' for nothing." But like the old Johnny Lee song, we go "looking for love in all the wrong places."
I'm afraid that, after all the publicity and accolades go away, Caitlyn Jenner is still going to be restless in her soul. There are many heart-wrenching stories of people who underwent gender reassignment surgery and later regretted it and tried to change back. Sweden's Karolinska Institute found the suicide rate is 20 times higher following the surgery compared to the nontransgender population.
The truth is, we all have a God-sized void in our soul that we try to fill with all the wrong things. As St. Augustine wrote, "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." Jesus said the answer to our broken soul is to be "born again" (John 3:3). This is not just adopting some religious beliefs but an actual transformation of our soul by the Holy Spirit. Religious head knowledge is not enough. We need a heart reassignment through a relationship with Jesus Christ. And ultimately, that is the kind of change we are all looking for and need.
Tony Walliser has served 15 years as senior pastor at Silverdale Baptist Church. He and his wife Susan have four children.