Getting What We Really Want

A little boy stayed overnight at his aunt’s house. In the morning, she asked what he wanted for breakfast. “Oh, I'd love your pancakes,” he replied. “When we have pancakes at home, I only get three, but when I'm at your house, you let me eat as many pancakes as I want.”

Soon, the aunt was piling pancakes on the boy’s plate, and he was eating them as fast as he could. By the time he had eaten his tenth pancake, his pace had slowed considerably. In the middle of eating number eleven he came to an abrupt halt. His, aunt asked, “Don't you want some more pancakes?” With a pained expression on his face, the boy looked at this aunt and said, “Oh no, I don't want any more. In fact, I don't even want the pancakes I've already eaten.”

Friends, sometimes we find that getting what we think we want in life, is not so much fun after all. Becoming wealthy, being successful in one’s career, having a lot of friends, or being involved in a lot of recreational activities are goals many of us have. Yet, even when these goals are met, a lot of people find that life still seems very empty. Lee Iacocca says many business leaders climb to the top of the ladder of success, only to discover it is leaning against the wrong wall. Lottery winners tell of how having a lot of money has made them not more happy, but less. They often find that people they thought really cared about them (friends and family members) suddenly seem to care more about getting some of that money. Champion athletes tell of how quickly the thrill of victory can evaporate. One football player, sitting in the locker room just two hours after his team had won the Super Bowl, asked, “OK, so who do we get to play next?” Many people achieve long held goals and find that true joy and satisfaction continues to elude them.

If achieving our goals doesn’t produce the happiness we anticipated, it reveals that our goals are inadequate. Thus, the problem is not that we want too much out of life, but rather that we are often content with too little. As C.S. Lewis said, “It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. We are 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.”

God, our loving creator, wants us to experience true joy every day we are on this planet. Yet, we are not going to find that fulfillment in the sources to which we often look. Money, things, family, friends, college degrees, fame, vacations, entertainment, or recreation really are not capable of providing what we truly desire. God Himself is the source of joy. As Psalm 16:11 says, “Lord, in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The way to experience true joy is to trust in Jesus Christ and seek to live in a way that pleases Him. Only then will our hunger for life truly be filled.