Many a day we find ourselves out of touch with reality, asking the age-old question: What is happiness and how can I achieve it?
But why are people so let down?
Well, this quest for happiness is our first mistake. Happiness doesn't last, so of course we will continually be dissatisfied.
We seek things that will give us temporary pleasure and a high here and there. We bask in the approval of others, making all our decisions based on their opinions. We seek after money, fame, power. And we hold so much hope in all of these transient things that promise happiness and freedom.
They promise happiness, yes, and they do bring us that for a short while. But then it eventually wears off and the cycle starts over. What can we seek now? More things to give us that temporary high?
For some people, the cycle repeats so many times and they just get used to it. They think there's no hope other than their continual pursuit of material things and secular desires.
For others, by the grace of God, they get exhausted on their never-ending happiness journey and Jesus meets them where they are, eliminating the futile search and satisfying them completely.
There are many pitfalls that result from putting hope in anything other than Christ. When feeling empty and on the hunt for what the world defines as happiness, most of us turn to worldly pleasures, resorting to the tantalizing temptations of influential marketing techniques that ultimately trap us into feeling jealous and possessing an strong sense of materialistic consumerism.
These secular desires are especially amplified when we start comparing ourselves to others and long in utter envy for the things – both tangible and not – that everyone else who seems to have their life together has. What happens is we think we will be satisfied in authentic contentment once we purchase all the so-called "normal" and "must-have" luxuries and temporary fads of the time.
Let me let you in on a little secret. Well...it's actually not really a secret at all, because even though this truth is staring humanity in the face, the calls of consumerism are too loud and overbearing, causing society to be blind, deaf, and ultimately paralyzed to this commonsensical phenomenon.
I like to call it "secular surround sound." It blares in our face and comes at us from all directions, whispering lies that tell you that you are not good enough if you don't have what everyone else has...you are inadequate if you don't buy the latest and greatest of everything...you are unsuccessful if you don't purchase name-brand items hot off the press...and the list goes on and on. But here's the secret: no matter how much we buy to keep up with our friends or quench our thirst of yearning desires to have all these items, we will never ever, ever, EVER be satisfied.
The thing is, all this stuff that we continually find ourselves caught up in – all the dirty, overwhelming, unbearable feelings and stench of unfulfilled pleasures staring at us and weighing us down – they are all temporary pleasures. They will not fill us up. Sure, we may have a rush of excitement and happiness lasting but a week when we first buy that nice new designer jacket. We may feel amazing with ourselves when we crush that sales goal our boss gives us. But then the end of the week passes, that high feeling wears off, and Monday comes back around again where we restart the unhealthy cycle of sadness and un-fulfillment, thinking we can resolve that disgusting feeling by filling up with garbage we don't realize is harming us in the moment.
We continue to hunger and thirst, unconsciously saddened by the fact these tchotchke commodities don't satisfy our woes. We will forever be hungry if we snack on insufficient and malnourished food of rubbish (aka the unfulfilling stuff from the world we just talked about that has the appearance of health and revitalization).
BUT, if we place our hope in God and let Him fill our hungry stomachs of souls, we will be full and prepared. Yet what do we repeatedly do instead? Unaware of the fact that this worldly "junk food" is gradually breaking us, we continue to buy more and more, shop, shop, shop, unknowingly feeding and fueling the very problem. We use this unwholesome practice as our therapy, our escape from day-to-day life, blind to the reality that all the appealing cries of consumerism are really just voracious wolves in shiny, inviting, and alluring sheep's clothing – out to ravage us, not empower us. It's like all the food items that claim to have certain benefits but really don't work at all.
The reason why these material things fail to satisfy our being is because for one, they leave us wanting more and are specifically designed with that intent in mind. And most importantly, they do not last.
Even humans who we attempt to put our trust in let us down all the time. The best thing we could do in the store is purchase the actual fruit instead of the bottle of food that has fruit in it. Natural food is always better than processed garbage just as God is always better than the processed and manufactured garbage of the world. Both fill us up in the moment, but one runs out and leaves us without energy.
Let me tell you Someone Who will replace all this unsatisfactory material, the ultimate curer of the materialistic dilemma. That would be the One True King, Jesus Christ. The reason He will never let you down is because He is omniscient, everlasting, the Bread of Life, the most encouraging and loving Being. He sacrifices to satisfy you. We must invest our hope in something greater than the here and now. We must look at the big picture even if it doesn't make sense to us and turn to the everlasting One Who has our best interest in mind. He loves us more than any human can or ever will. He is holy, perfect, rich with love and compassion, and never with the slightest taint of imperfection.
If you don't just want to be temporarily happy, choose Jesus, who gives us joy that will never run out. This joy is sustainable for any storm of life that comes our way. It's the most important decision you will ever make, and let me tell you, the best one, too. ✞ ♡
Earthly things make us temporarily happy, but Jesus brings eternal joy and satisfaction.
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