Daniel Rose

The Four Gs: God is Good

What do you need to be satisfied? What do you need to be content?

Seriously.

What is it?

Do you need a new car? Those clothes? That house? This gadget? That person?

What do you need to be satisfied?

Have you ever had the thing that you needed to be satisfied? How long did the sense of satisfaction and contentment last?

Why is that? Why is it that contentment and satisfaction are fleeting?

What is it about us as a people that we can’t experience contentment for any length of time?

Have you ever been around someone who was profoundly content? What was it about them that helped you know that was true? What was it like to be around them? How did you feel in their presence?

These are questions that I ask myself on a regular basis.

I am sitting at my desk typing on a nearly seven old laptop. Part of me looks at it and wishes it was a fancy MacBook Pro with all the bells and whistles. But you know what? This laptop works phenomenally well. It is fast and has plenty of storage. This laptop does the exact job that I need it to do. Why do I want something else?

AHHHHHH!!!!

Even typing that I feel in myself this sense of dis-ease rising up in my chest. I want… What a disgusting phrase. I am so tired of the sickness of consumerism that is within me.

Those questions that I started out writing make my palms sweat. It is like being diagnosed with an illness for which there is no cure in me.

Contentment is so very hard for me. I always think that there is something more, something better, something that will bring me satisfaction just around the bend.

I wish I could be more like my wife. She has learned to be content in all situations. She is happy as can be with simply being with folks. Amy wants to be present with people. Or she is happy to curl up on the couch and watch baseball or a favorite TV show. Either way, she’s happy and content.

Me? I’m always scanning Amazon or some such nonsense for my next fix.

As I continue to process things in my life I am realizing that this lack of contentment is due to my lack of belief that God is good. At some fundamental place, I don’t believe that God is good and that he will take care of me.

Jesus said,

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

What it comes down to is this: I don’t really believe that. I do not fundamentally believe that God is going to give good gifts to me.

God is good, therefore I don’t have to find satisfaction elsewhere.

This is true. But, I struggle to believe it. So, I lack a sense of contentment and satisfaction.

How about you? Do you believe that God is good therefore you don’t have to find satisfaction elsewhere?