We Are Far Too Easily Pleased...

I guess you could say this post has been a long time coming...it has been almost a year since my last post, and honestly I don't know what moved me to finally write it all out and put words to these thoughts that have been tickling my mind over the past few months.  But here it is, the random bunny trails of my mind!

We are far too easily pleased...

So often we feel some sort of conviction in a sermon...
or come across something profound in our reading...
yet we only give it a few moments of our attention...
let it entertain our thoughts for a fleeting second...
then just move on to the next thing that catches our fancy...
entertained by so many different things...
the myriads of little thoughts all vying for our attention...
we are so content letting our minds be filled with trivial musings...
skipping from one daydream to another...
constantly absorbed on insignificant contemplations...

What if we were...different. I mean if you think about it, that is what we as Christians are called and instructed to be different from this world! (1 Peter 2:9, 1 Peter 3:15, Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3:8-9, Psalm 4:3, John 17:5-8, and more)

So there's obviously there's a dissonance here, but what is it?

Because here we are, sitting, wondering what the next nice thing we can buy is, or planning out our future family, the next destination vacation that we could go on... Now mind you I'm not saying that there's anything inherently wrong with any of those things. God lavishes gifts upon us, just take a moment and think about this. Whether or not we believe in God, we are created in His image, walking, talking, eating, drinking and wearing His stuff. He blesses us with family, friends,  sex, nature, play and a myriad of other different things. For our heavenly Father is a loving father and does care deeply about the state of His children. And as a result the only true way we can actually enjoy God's good gifts and pleasures the way they're designed to be enjoyed is to be oriented around Jesus, and having our satisfaction tied only to Him. But we have taken these gifted pleasures and twisted them, we have oriented ourselves at the center of them, and tied our satisfaction to them. We get so consumed pursuing these gifts that we lose sight of the reason for these gifts, and the true source of pleasure and satisfaction.

That's when we have a problem.

'We are far too easily pleased" 

I believe C.S. Lewis says it best in this little phrase from his sermon The Weight of Glory, and for the sake of knowing the context here's more of the paragraph for you.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. 

"We are half-hearted creatures" think about that, isn't it so true? We settle for the pleasures and are content in spending our lives running around after them. And yet something happens to us when being satisfied with these good things, whether they are a big home, beautiful family,  hilarious friends, exotic vacations, successful career, the latest gadget, meeting your favorite celebrity, a championship for your sports team, or highly attractive significant other, the list is endless.

We are cheating ourselves. That's what Lewis is saying. In the pursuit of these meager, earthly pleasures and the short-lived thoughts and feelings of gaining our happiness through them, we are cheating ourselves. Our capacity for true joy is being shriveled...so much so that now many of us can scarcely imagine what is meant by "a holiday at the sea." And this is heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking because in effect it lessens our view of God. In all of the hustle and bustle of this modern age, we think so so little, on who God truly is, what His nature is truly like, what His will truly desires, and many more weighty questions. So when we are so preoccupied with the thoughts and ideas of pleasures of this world, in a sense it distracts us from the thoughts and ideas that will echo for eternity.

"What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us" - A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

So what then?
Where does this all mean to us?
And more importantly how can we not be so easily pleased?

Well thankfully Jesus Himself instructs us! In Matthew 6 Jesus is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, and addresses people worrying about various temporal things in their life.

"This is why I tell you: Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Matthew 6:25

He further instructs them to not worry about all these things (what to wear, eat drink, where to live, etc) because...

"For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them." Matthew 6:32

So there are two aspects to this verse. The first talks about pleasures being what the idolaters seek after...they are taking these good pleasures and using them to subvert God in his rightful place in their minds/hearts/lives... the second talks about how our heavenly Father knows exactly what we need. Think about that. God knows what we need (even more so than we do, for He is all-knowing, and we are not) and He is our powerful loving Father, and thus He authors our lives for our eternal good!
All of this leads to verse 33, and in this verse I believe is the answer to that question of "how can we not be so easily pleased?" 

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33 

There you go, seek first the kingdom of God. It's a simple thing to say, its quite another to live day in and day out. But when we do God promises us Himself for eternity, and the joy, excitement, and comfort of that eternal promise of community with our Father far surpasses what any temporal pleasure could offer.

 "they now desire a better place--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." Hebrews 11:16

In all of this I simply want to encourage you. To take the time this summer and really take a step back and evaluate things. Ask yourself some of these questions...

What is it that I get the most pleasure from?
What is it that consumes my thoughts?
What drives my ideas and actions?
What is really the most important thing day by day to me?
What comes to mind when I think about God?
What is the nature of God?
How can I be constantly growing closer to God?

You may ask, why is it so important to do this? To quote the same A.W. Tozer book,

"The man who comes to a right belief about God is relived of ten thousand temporal problems." 

So do it.
Rid yourself of distractions.
Grab a bible, paper, and pen.
Pray for an open and humble heart.
Honestly listen to God.
Become enthralled with the wonder of who He is.
And realize how much you mean to Him.

"O Majesty unspeakable, my soul desires to behold Thee. I cry to Thee from the dust." 

“My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.” Psalm 63:5