Tag Archives: Satisfaction

I’m Bored!

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Life LinesI’m bored! It isn’t often that I’m able to take two days off in a row, but this week everything fell into place and I am off work today and tomorrow. The problem is I AM BORED! I have already completed my list of things to do today. I’ve finished the laundry, taken out the trash, paid the bills, balanced our accounts, completed my bible study, and had my prayer time. It is only noon and I just don’t know what to do next.

There are several things I would like to do, but I just can’t seem to get excited about them. I don’t feel like watching television, Netflix, or renting a movie. If the sun would come out I might consider golfing. I could get online and check out the posted Black Friday sales, but I like going first thing Thanksgiving morning to buy a paper, looking through the deals, and then drawing up a plan of how to put my head into the mouth of the retail lion that is Black Friday! I could also go over to the mall and try to get my Christmas shopping done early; however, my son’s list is anemic at best and I don’t want to have to make two trips, so I’ll just wait until later. I just don’t have anything to do, so I AM BORED!

So, in my boredom I began to think about what it must have been like a hundred years ago when you worked from dark to dark. You had to get up before the sun, get the fire going in the house, go out and feed the animals, milk the cows, collect the eggs, get the horses ready for working in the field, and then you could sit down and enjoy a quick breakfast. After breakfast you worked out in the field until someone brought you lunch. After your short lunch-break you would get back to work until dusk. Then you had to get the animals back into the barn, feed them, and make sure they would stay warm over night. Then you had to collect enough firewood to get you through the cold winter night, fill the lantern so you could see in the morning, and then sit down for a quick dinner. Following dinner you would spend some time with the family. Then finally it was time for bed to get a few hours sleep in preparation for another day of what you just did today, yesterday, and everyday before that!

I wonder what it was like to live that type of life? What was it like to live life knowing your survival meant doing the same thing every day? That’s when it hit me, “I know exactly what it was like.” It was SATISFYING! Without a doubt it was hard work, but to sit down at night and see the work you had completed with your hands had to be satisfying. Think about it, a creative God made us; thus it only stands to reason that we are creative beings. We find satisfaction in completing things. They may not always be easy or even what we want to do, but there is great satisfaction in marking something off your to do list. Regardless of whether you point to a white board, type on a computer, farm, or run a machine all day it is satisfying to know that you made a difference.

I spend way too much time at work each week for it to only be something I do so that I can have money to spend on my 24-48 hour weekend of “Me Time!” Life as a whole should be satisfying from Sunday through Saturday. Looking back each evening at the work of our hands should bring a smile to our face and sense of accomplishment. “Look what I was able to do today!”

It may not be working a farm, it may not have anything to do with our surviving another day, but today I finished several things that will ensure my wife has plenty of free time tomorrow to do what she wants. And, for better or worse, I wrote this post. It’s not long, it’s not deep, but it is something to think about. And that is SATISFYING!

So, what have you done today that has brought a little smile of satisfaction to your face?

Are You Drifting?

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give a holy temple to a holy godD.A. Carson has said:

“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated”

We can find so many ways to justify our sinful failures so as to not feel guilty. However, God has called us to be holy. In 1 Peter 1.13-16 we read:

“So brace up your minds, and, as men who know what they are doing, rest the full weight of your hopes on the grace that will be yours when Jesus Christ reveals himself. Live as obedient children before God. Don’t let your character be moulded by the desires of your ignorant days, but be holy in every department of your lives, for the one who has called you is himself holy. The scripture says: ‘Be holy, for I am holy’” (J.B. Phillips Version).

Clearly this verse is calling those who have placed their faith in Jesus to be holy as He is holy. This is really not an option. If we are going to live a holy life it will only happen when we find complete satisfaction with God’s holiness. Holiness is not being self-determined to not sin. Holiness happens when we no longer are satisfied with or fulfilled by sin. As we grow in holiness we do not desire sin because it no longer offers anything that is appealing. Our satisfaction is found in God, and His holiness is all we desire.

By examining our desires and subsequent actions it should be obvious if we are pursuing holiness. Let’s look at the quote one more time by D.A. Carson:

“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated”

How do you measure up? Are you drifting away from holiness? Are you making excuses for you sinfulness? I once heard a pastor say, “If all Christians were just like me, what kind of church would this church be?”