Seeking satisfaction:
It has dawned on me this week, how empty life can be. When thinking about it, everything we are told, everything we observe in media, everything we strive towards in life. It all accumulates toward one emotion, this longing for a sense of satisfaction. The reason we go to school, Uni or college; the reason we apply for the best job or the job that we so desperately want, to fill this massive discontent with life.
Then the thought occurs that there is literally nothing; nothing in this world that can completely satisfy or give purpose. We work so hard to fulfil these empty wells of desire. We begin to associate fulfilment, joy, satisfaction; all of these "good" emotions with being able to do things competently. We are given to the view that a pre-requisite for true satisfaction is based on our ability to achieve. C.S Lewis says this, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
Thinking of this in terms of Christianity, it relates so much. I have heard and I have said that Jesus is the only thing that can satisfy, I have heard and said that Jesus is everything. In John 10:10 Jesus says that he comes to give life, not just mediocre life, but in fact life to the full. Yet so often I and, (I am certain) most Christians still experience a longing for more, an inner sense that there is still something to achieve, that sounds wrong to say, but I am determined to be honest here. The phrase "I still haven't found what I am looking for", recycles in my head. I know what I need to do, and I know how to do it but still return to the default of good works.
I recently watched a few videos in a sermon series called "I still haven't found what I'm looking for". This series attempts to tackle the life long question of satisfaction. I don't think it's wrong to say that I love Jesus but still have experienced dissatisfaction, in fact it would make me a liar if I said otherwise. However, there is one fatal error in what I have said and how I go about gaining satisfaction in life. Because despite knowing Jesus personally and realising that he is the only thing, ever that can fully satisfy me I still run back to what I have been told works and what I think brings satisfaction. Sometimes this is sin, a lot of the time it is doing what feels natural, trying to obtain, work for, acquire, that "feel good" emotion which is associated with satisfaction. I don't mean trying to work my way to salvation, but what I mean is trying to obey the law to feel good about myself, almost as if I am trying to be good enough to deserve the grace God has shown me. This will never satisfy, I simply can not be good enough to deserve any fraction of God's grace.
Because I can't obey the law it only seems natural to assume that the dissatisfaction is paired with Jesus, when in reality it is because I failingly still try to earn it. Satisfaction in its fullest is found in what Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 "I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it" I believe that Jesus completely satisfies the requirement of the law, but also I truly believe that he completely satisfies our longing for something more. And that we are only really satisfied when we realise that we can not be fulfilled when we try to work for it, but only when we let Jesus do what he came to do, and only when we let go and accept that Jesus has done it, he shows us grace upon grace, and lavishes his love on us... UNCONDITIONALLY! Then even more, when we do this our hearts are in line with creator God, and we experience the fullness of the potential God has made us for. We are satisfied when we do what we were meant to do, to be witnesses of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. Nothing else works, Jesus is the only thing that can ever complete and satisfy.