Satisfaction

August 3, 2017

This morning’s prayer time began as it usually does, with Harry reading a Psalm. Today’s reading was Psalm 65, the fourth verse of which ends with, “we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple.” Those words got me to thinking. Where do I look for satisfaction in life? Years ago, Mick Jagger gyrated while caressing the microphone, almost vomiting those words at us like a dagger as he screamed, “I can’t get no satisfaction!” Like many others, he looked for it in sex, drugs, money, and fame, and more than fifty years later, it doesn’t appear that he is any closer to it than he was back then.

Most of us aren’t proclaiming to the world our failure to find satisfaction, but it’s evident all around and within us. We keep reaching for the next thrill, the next accomplishment, the next affirmation, and as soon as we hold it in our grasp, it slips between our fingers, and off we go, chasing it like a little child running in circles trying to catch butterflies in a net. Christians are caught up in this pursuit just as much as anyone else. We claim to have found the answer in Jesus Christ, all the while we’re buying the next toy, seeking the next adventure, hopping from church to church because we weren’t being fed where we were. We live in defeat and disappointment because we hold expectations that this world cannot fulfill. 

When, Jim, was the last time you slowed down enough to let yourself be satisfied with the goodness of God’s house, the holiness of his temple? How long has it been since you backed away from all your plans and schemes to do God’s work so you could bask in the glory of his presence? When did you last sit before him and realize that he is enough? Tonight, I am thankful that there is satisfaction in this life, and that I know where it is found. Now, if I can only slow down enough, and detach from the distractions enough, to receive what Christ wants to give even more than I want to receive.