So Now What? (Part 1)

Ok, so the Rangers lost the World Series.  They didn’t just loose it, they gave it away in an agonizing, grand historical fashion.  Fans that had waited since the early 70s for a WS win were effectively punched in the gut.  Game 6 was enough to stare blankly at the TV and wonder, if there actually is a purgatory, was this it?!?!  Unless, of course, you were rooting for the red birds, in which case you’d have to wonder if God was a bona-fide Cardinal fan?

But step back for one small moment and consider: What if the Rangers had won?  Besides the fun-filled experience of watching the games, the fond memories, the future back-slapping story-telling that might ensue for months or even years: Would it truly be any more than a mildly blissful distraction to any fan’s everyday life?  Would it literally change anything?  Would we honestly experience more joy, would our lives be forever changed?  Would one still have to do the dishes or laundry the next day?

Or take anything else that you are passionate about: Music, art, books, movies, TV shows, politics, ministries, your job, your “success”, your possessions, your family, your friends, your significant ‘other’:  Will any of these things or people make your life essentially complete? 

If your team wins the championship every year, then what next?  What happens when championships become routine and boring?

What happens when your candidate wins the election?  Seriously, what then?  Anything?

Or if your favorite artist puts out a masterwork of music or film or words: Will it be so perfect as to make you completely satisfied?  What happens when art becomes a whip of old retreads repeating the same stories and themes and sounds over and over again? Then what?

Or will your acquisition of the perfect job or perfect mate or perfect success story really give you infinite joy?  What happens when your job grows dull, your soul mate gets older and your ‘success’ becomes stale and unappreciated? What next? What now?

Are any of ‘these things’, great as they are, meant to quench your thirst of meaning, joy, and happiness?  Is life truly now complete once the Rangers win; once my favorite new album comes out; once so-and-so becomes president; once they make my favorite book into a movie; once I become ‘successful;’ once I pull in six figures; once I gain respect from my peers; once I find my soul-mate, once the Rangers repeat, etc.?

If we are not careful, we can look to the events and activities and things and people that certainly make our lives richer, fuller, and more meaningful, and ask them to do that which was not there purpose: They cannot wholly fulfill, they cannot completely satisfy.  No one thing or no one person under the sun can.  There is no such thing as complete satisfaction under the sun. And when we ask all these to fulfill us, they ultimately cannot.  It is indeed a shallow life that depends so heavily on outside influences for joy, peace, happiness, and self-worth.

Consider the following: Despite its overall context belonging to a chapter describing Hinduism, I find this quote by Huston Smith in his book The World’s Religions to be a spot on summary of our human condition:

“There comes a time,” Aldous Huxley wrote, “when one asks even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, is this all?”…The world’s offerings are not bad.  By and large they are good.  Some of them are good enough to command our enthusiasm for many lifetimes.  Eventually, however, every human being comes to realize with Simone Weil that “there is no true good here below, that everything that appears to be good in this world is finite, limited, wears out and once worn out, leaves necessity exposed in all its nakedness.”  When this point is reached, one finds oneself asking even of the best this world can offer, “Is this all?”

(Smith, The World’s Religions, 19-20)

Is this all? So now what? What’s next? It certainly reminds me of the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: There is nothing new under the sun, all of these things are simply meaningless, a chasing after the wind.  For some unknown reason (maybe it’s just ingrained into the fibers of being human) we can’t take the writer’s word for it. We absolutely must go out and try everything we can in order to confirm what deep down we already knewto be true:  There is nothing here that satisfies completely.  No one thing or no one event or no single person can satisfy you.  These things were meant to enrich your life, yet they were never meant to fulfill it.

I will leave you with the following Scripture, on which we will pick up with next week’s post.  Jesus urges us to forgo the transient things of this life for the eternal ones of the next:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”(Matt.5.19-21)

Again, much more on this theme next week.  But for now I ask you to consider: What are you chasing, what are you striving after this week?  Will it truly satisfy?  Will it leave you no longer looking for ‘more’?  Is it worth it?  Can you muster the courage to step off the hamster wheel and cease striving?  Can you enjoy the blessings God has given you today (and today only), without asking of them more than they are capable of providing?

So maybe next year, Texas Rangers.  Perhaps next season, Texas Aggies…Denver Broncos…Dallas Cowboys….There is always next season, eh?  But if you do win, I doubt you’ll change my everyday life one single, solitary bit.

In Christ,
Mark