I had a conversation yesterday with a friend regarding the perpetual unhappiness of everyone. He spoke of his children and how they want one more dress, one more pair of shoes, just one more. He even spoke of his millionaire friend who wants just one more million. Why is it that we’re never happy with what we have? Why is it that we always place happiness, not in what we have, but in the very thing we still lack?
Well, part of it is in the way things are advertised. Things are never advertised in a way that allows the item for sale to carry its own weight, to sell itself so to speak. Instead things are advertised with a promise–and not just any promise, but with the promise of ultimate happiness and satisfaction. “If you buy this pair of shoes you’ll be happy.” “If you buy this pair of pants you’ll finally be satisfied.” “It doesn’t matter if you already have a phone, you don’t yet have this one.” And on and on it goes. Why the promises? Because that’s what sells; and because merchants have learned how to play on our innate unhappiness. They’ve learned that, like themselves, we’re naturally unhappy and discontent with what we have. So they know that if they promise us contentment we’ll take the bait and swipe the card.
Another reason they use promises to sell is because at the end of the day what they have to sell is not all that special. Sure, one product is better than another. Starbucks is better than Dunkin Donuts, after all. But neither in a “Grande Pike” nor in a “Coffee Black” can anyone find happiness. Neither will satisfy the deep longings of our heart. A Grande Pike may satisfy my appetite for a Grande Pike, but that’s all it can do. It cannot keep me from wanting another one, later today, or tomorrow, or everyday.
So what’s the problem? The problem is ultimately this: we have a natural craving and longing in our heart that neither one nor a thousand coffees can satisfy, that neither a new phone nor ten new phones can satisfy, that neither one million nor ten million can satisfy–that not even a happy home or obedient children can satisfy. Let me be clear: we were created in the image of God and for the worship of God and nothing but God can satisfy our soul’s longing. I spoke about this in an earlier post and would recommend you read it.
So what I’d like to point out today is this: God satisfies our longing, not only because it’s for Him that we ultimately long, but because He is in Himself, unlike all created things, perfectly and completely satisfactory. He is in Himself so fulfilling and so satisfying that the soul that takes Him to be its God cannot but be content. When we seek our contentment and happiness in earthly things, we’re trying to fit an ocean of longing into a thimble of satisfaction. But when we seek our contentment and happiness in God, we’re setting the soul loose to swim freely in an infinite ocean of delight, in a bottomless and shoreless ocean of happiness.
And unlike the advertised promises of merchants which always fail the soul, God’s promises never disappoint. What He promises the soul, He gives the soul. In fact, He gives more than He promises, because the finitude of human language simply cannot tell all that there is in Him to give and all that He gives to Him who will come to Him for it. Jesus said it as completely and fully as can be said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4.13-14).
If you’re unhappy today, or if you’re generally an unhappy person, it’s not because you bought the wrong thing or desire the wrong thing. But it may be because you’re looking for happiness and contentment in all the wrong places. You won’t find it anywhere but in God, who is Himself essential happiness. The soul lost in God by faith in Christ is the only happy soul.
May you come to find your happiness in God today, and everyday. Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. Will you use it to lay all your “stuff” down at the foot of the cross and lift your eyes, heart, and soul unto the one who hung there to make you happy, forever happy–in Himself?
