Satisfaction guaranteed
Written by Steve Grose
I can't get no satisfaction
Next Gen 2012 Conference speaker Con Campbell reminded Katoomba Conventioners in January that in every generation a popular song is written that acknowledges the emptiness of life, and the longing that we all have for something more in life. For Peggy Lee's generation it was "Is That All There Is?" Another generation felt Bruce Springsteen's "Everybody's Got a Hungry Heart", or The Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No Satisfaction".
"I can't get no satisfaction,
I can't get no satisfaction.
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try.
I can't get no, I can't get no.
I can't get no satisfaction,
no satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction.
For another recent generation it's a song by Stacey Oricco.
"I've got it all, but I feel so deprived I go up,
I come down and I'm emptier inside.
Tell me what is this thing that I feel like I'm missing
And why can't I let go?
There's gotta be more to life,
Than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me!
Well, it's life, but I'm sure, there's gotta be more,
than wanting more.
I've got the time and I'm wasting it slowly
Here in this moment I'm half way out the door
Onto the next thing, I'm searching for something that's missing There's gotta be more"
C. S. Lewis came to the same conclusion; "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, then the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world". Jesus told Satan (and us), "Man does not live by bread alone" (Matthew 4:4). We need more than bread. We yearn, we hunger, and we thirst, for happiness and fulfilment. As Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "God has set eternity in the hearts of man". But in spite of the fact that experience shows the things of this earth don't satisfy, we still keep going back to things, pleasures, performance, and possessions to try and fill the emptiness of our souls.
Blaise Pascal invented the first laptop computer (google him) and said “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart that only God alone can fill!”
Some try to ease their hunger or thirst for eternal things with earthly pleasures.
People think things like this, "If I could only take a lavish cruise, Greece maybe, or retire in luxury, near the beach then I'll be completely happy." The frustrating experience of millions of people shows that once again they can’t get no satisfaction. Pleasure, no matter how much of it we have, always leaves us feeling empty, yearning for more. Ecclesiastes 6:7 says, "All the labor of man is for his mouth [for self-preservation and enjoyment], and yet his desire is not satisfied." Pleasures may make you happy, but, sadly, not for long. Our hearts are made to be satisfied with the eternal, but we keep filling our souls with temporary stuff, and, we just can’t get no satisfaction!
In his book, The Applause of Heaven, Max Lucado says, "False fountains pacify our cravings with sugary swallows of pleasure. But there comes a time when pleasure doesn't satisfy. There comes a dark hour in every life when the world caves in and we are left trapped in the rubble of reality parched and dying."
Some people seek lasting (eternal) satisfaction in performance.
But this doesn't work either. No matter how well you perform in your career, like all workaholics you will learn that, as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, all a person gets for all his hard work are, "days full of sorrow and grief, and restless nights," because "you work for something with all your skill, and then you have to leave it all to someone who hasn't had to work for it." (Ecclesiastes 2:21,23). Or you worry someone might steal it. Success just can’t produce satisfaction. Many successful people are very unsatisfied inside. After the thrill of competing for and winning the James Morrison Jazz Scholarship, Con Campbell recognised that same old emptiness arising in his soul; “Is that all there is?”, that same awareness that something is still missing. As Ecclesiastes 4:8 says, "Man is always working, but never satisfied".
Some seek to satisfy their inner hunger and thirst with possessions.
Have you heard the slogan “satisfaction guaranteed”? The only guarantee you get with possessions is that enough is never enough!, "He who loves things, will never have enough. It is foolish to think that wealth brings happiness!" (Ecclesiastes 5:10)
Lucado sums up our vain attempts to find satisfaction: "We are very thirsty, not for fame, possession, passion or romance. We've drunk from those pools. They are salt water in the desert. They don't quench, they kill. No, we're thirsty for a clean conscience. We crave a clean slate. We yearn for a fresh start. The problem is the treasures of earth don't satisfy. The promise is the treasures of heaven do."
Jesus came for the express purpose of satisfying this desire.
True satisfaction
In John 6:35-36 Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty." In John 6:51 He said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world". In John 4:13-14 He said, "Whoever drinks water will get thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. It will become in him a spring of living water." In all these statements Jesus is saying "I'm it. I'm what you are looking for. Only I can meet your need for more than this world has to give."
Con Campbell and millions with him have discovered that Jesus can bring that deep satisfaction that is eternal in nature, because He is eternal! He came to bring you Life in all its fullness!
Have you come to Him? Deep, real, eternal satisfaction is guaranteed.