SatisfactionDo you look to things for satisfaction? Does any worldly thing actually satisfy? If you ate the world's best meal, would you hunger again? Of course. In fact, the best meal this world has to offer, offers so little that I don't think you'd be satisfied with the exact same 'best meal' over and over again for the rest of your life. Within a week you would probably hunger for a better, more satisfying meal. If you drank the purest drink of water the world has to offer, would you never thirst again? I like cars. In 1976 I thought the absolute best car in the world was a Porsche Turbo Carrera - AKA the 930, or 911 Turbo. They were introduced in Europe in 1975, and came to the United States as 1976 model cars. I thought they were beautiful. Everything a car needed to be. Today, I could easily buy that 930, but I don't want it. It's not satisfying. Every year, a better car is built. How can there be satisfaction if a person can find themselves lusting after something within a few short years of allegedly being satisfied? What about drugs? I've heard coke addicts say they are always trying to get a hit as good as that very first one. They try larger doses and stronger variations, but they are always after that same feeling they got the first time. Many die of an overdose having never found that elusive satisfaction they were looking for. The same applies for love. One minute you're in happily love, and the next minute you're wondering, "How did I get here?" It's not that you don't love your spouse, or sibling, or parents, or anyone. You may love them dearly. You just can't figure out why they don't love you as you wish they did, or you don't love them as you once did, or how the two of you ended up where you are.
King Solomon wrote that. King Solomon was the wisest person in the world. According to the book of I Kings, Solomon was given a wise and understanding heart, so that there were none like him either before or after him.
This actually sounds like King Solomon was the wisest person ever. That may be arguable, but I believe we can agree that Solomon probably knew what he was talking about in this case. Vanity is a very old word that means something that is vain, empty or valueless. As Solomon said, all is vanity. I assume 'all' to include the things I wrote of earlier - food, possessions, mental states, even love. There is no satisfaction as it is all of no value. It's not the fault of the object, it' the way things are. Fortunately, there was a later book, in which a better outlook was given:
Jesus just gave us a hint of something that satifies. He said that whosoever drinks of the water that HE shall give shall never thirst. Was this literal water? No, but whatever it is, it had that elusive satisfaction that I spoke of earlier. Later, Jesus elaborates:
There is satisfaction in Jesus Christ. HE is the Messiah, the bread of life. If we come to HIM we shall never hunger, and if we believe on HIM, we shall never thirst. In HIM, we have satisfaction. Mick Jagger is wrong. Mick can get satisfaction. He just needs to know where to look. ---------
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