When the tank is dry, what satisfies?




There is a chasm so deep and so wide in each human’s soul that all of creation cannot fill it up. The void hurts and cries like a hungry infant to be filled, and the pain of emptiness is unbearable.

One only has to watch television or go to a movie, or even read a newspaper to see all the unsatisfied souls in America. This state which plagues humans is a train wreck waiting to happen, and the broken rail that causes the derailment is discontent.  Discontent breeds fear, and the two create a completely useless life because one who is not satisfied cannot satisfy. It is quite surprising that Americans have this extent of discontent in their hearts. After all, America is the land of milk and honey. Americans have more pocket change than most of the world has in a week. Americans exhibit such deep cravings that no amount of new clothes, new cars, new toys, new sex, husband, wife, children, work, hobby or church activity can satisfy.

The crevasse within the soul is such a god-sized hole, one must either find or create a god to fill it. For the most part, Americans give evidence that they use two primordial gods called Fortune and Destiny to that end. The question is why do so many put faith in what has proven very fickle down through the ages? Humans would rather put faith in what they can see and touch rather than in the invisible. It is our nature. Worshipping Fortune, man depends upon the work of his hands. In worshipping Destiny, he haplessly attributes circumstance to “It just wasn’t in the cards,” or “It was fate.” Whether good or bad, regardless of his choices and decisions, Americans of today relinquish responsibility for consequence. It wasn’t always so.

Because man sees circumstance as destiny, seeds of discontent germinate because satisfaction is tasted, but not savored and fully digested. Cravings keep driving a person without giving any direction to where it can be satisfied. Many things lessen the ache, but all are temporal and temporary. This causes that circle of despair which has no egress. This is what causes Americans to put faith in what the moth can destroy and hope in what can be gone in a moment. Fortune and Destiny have no eyes to see the despair and troubles, no ears to hear the cry for help and no hand to reach down and comfort. Yet, Americans keep driving down an empty road searching for the elusive prize of satisfaction, never recognizing the temporary cannot satisfy the eternal.

This quest for Satisfaction rules the hearts of most humans, but Americans have tuned it to a fine art beyond the basic necessities of life. Hungry? Visit the All-You-Can-Eat bar. Thirsty? Get the 32 oz. Caf-Pow. Depressed? Go shopping. Everything must be bigger, better, higher; there is no end to our desires and choices for satisfying them.

Our forefathers are rolling in their graves, so to speak, at what America puts first. Our nation was built on Biblical principles by Christian men and women. One has only to do a bit of reading of historical speeches and writings of John Hancock, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and many others to know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Matthew, Mark, Paul and John was also the God of our forefathers. Nonetheless, today the battle cry is not “A Bible in every house” (Ben Franklin). It is “King size it” and “I’ll have it my way” for “If it feels good, do it” and “Just do it” because “I deserve a break today.” Regardless of lessons from times past, Americans have not learned how to let history be a teacher.

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