Satisfaction Guaranteed - Part I

By Clarissa Ramos

"Three things stand in the way of our complete satisfaction in this world. One is that nothing has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longings of our hearts. Another is that we lack the strength to savor the best treasures to their maximum worth. And the third obstacle to complete satisfaction is that our joys here come to an end. Nothing lasts." - John Piper, The Pleasures Of God (26-27)

Satisfaction. What a beautiful, comforting, crushing word. The aim of everything we do or strive for. All we ever really want but never seem to get.

Webster's American Family Dictionary defines the word satisfy in this way:

1. to fulfill the desires, expectations, needs, or demands of ; make content.
2. to put an end to (a desire, want, need, etc.) by sufficient or ample provision.

And boy, do we have needs! But nothing ever seems to meet those needs completely. There is no source of warmth in the cold, no light in the darkness. There is no personal achievement or human relationship that can quench this insatiable hunger within. We're constantly groping about, grasping for whatever might move us one step closer to peace and fulfillment - forever driven by this constant burning restlessness. And with the writer of Ecclesiastes we agree that,

"All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, or the ear its fill of hearing." - Eccl. 1:8

So we run, usually away from ourselves, never really knowing where we're going or why - hoping that somewhere along the way we'll find what we're looking for. But then again, we aren't really sure what it is that we're looking for in the first place.

"A life lived without reflection can be very superficial and empty. The emptiness must be filled. Not knowing the One who alone can fill the heart, man grabs repeatedly for some new stimulation, sensation, satisfaction to fill his time and slake his restlessness. His enjoyment is short-lived... He is like the man who wrote, 'I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure... Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.' ( Eccl. 2:10-11)" - Elisabeth Elliot, Secure In The Everlasting Arms (119-120)

Those of us who have been regenerated often fall into this category as well. Just because we have come to know the Lord doesn't mean that we've learned how to be satisfied in Him. We wander from one human distraction to the next (whether consciously or sub-consciously), abandoning each after a brief "emotional trial run." Nothing ever turns out to be what we hope or expect it to be. Our burning restlessness remains.

However, there is satisfaction to be found. There is a cool calm for our burning, relief from our running. It is there to be had, but to get to it requires two things of us: faith and obedience. We'll examine those in Part II.