Wanting More
Long ago Paul noted, “But godliness actually is a means
of great gain when accompanied by contentment” (1 Timothy 6:6). Mark Chamberlain wrote, “Have you
discovered ugly truths that you never suspected? Has your perfect job turned dull and tedious? Is your dream house becoming just another
place you have lived? Have you become
disillusioned and concluded that enjoyment cannot live up to its promise? Have you come to believe that pleasure is
unsustainable?” (Wanting More the Challenge of Enjoyment in the Age of
Addiction p. x). Yet Paul said
there is such a thing in this life as contentment, which is a
sustainable joy or happiness. He also
noted that such is great gain! Notice that the contentment mentioned in this verse is linked with
godliness rather than with worldly possessions. “The Christian can be self-sufficient because his sufficiency is
rooted and grounded in God’s all-sufficiency and rests with assurance upon
God’s providential care. Such
contentment naturally belongs to true godliness. Paul knows that man is only satisfied in God; and therefore
devotion to God is the first condition of this true satisfaction, and
contentedness with an earthly lot the second.
Such godliness is a very different thing from the mercenary concept of
false teachers” (Hiebert p. 112). “He is declaring that in contrast to
the mercenary attitude of the false teachers, ‘godliness accompanied by
contentment’ is greater riches than all the offerings collected by the false
teachers. Paul himself had learned such
contentment (Philippians 4:11-13).
Godliness of the right kind, then, with no selfish thought of its being
used as a steppingstone to wealth or worldly acclaim, but coupled with a pure
conscience and peace of soul, will furnish satisfaction far beyond anything
this world can offer. This is great
gain” (Reese p. 273).
“The truth is, we cannot simply enjoy life more by accruing
more goods and goodies. Just as the
float in a toilet tank rises with the water level to seal off incoming water
and prevent overflow, our expectations seems to float upon our rising
prosperity and shut down our pleasure with each step up we take. The long-term satisfaction levels of former
lottery winners provide perhaps the most compelling demonstration that pleasure
and enjoyment can fade despite even dramatic jumps in prosperity. Many people are surprised to learn that
those who have changed from average wage-earners to millionaires in a day don’t
rise to a new level of life enjoyment and then remain there perpetually. Instead, they are ecstatic initially, enjoy
life more than usual for a few weeks, and then typically report a happiness
level that has returned to whatever it was before their big win. An annoying and unfortunate side-effect
accompanies their new enjoyment setpoint, however: Lottery winners typically give lower enjoyment ratings than the
rest of us do to the mundane, day-to-day activities of life” (pp. 5-6). The Bible notes the same principle, “He
who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves
abundance with its income” (Ecclesiastes 5:10). Did you notice the word
“abundance”; man cannot be satisfied with an abundance of any earthly thing.
“Have you found honey?
Eat only what you need, that you not have it in excess and vomit it”
(Proverbs 25:16). “A parable of the fatal difference between healthy appetite
and greed. Since Eden, man has wanted
the last ounce of life, as though beyond God’s ‘enough’ lay ecstasy, not
nausea” (Kidner p. 159). “Too
much of anything, regardless of how good it is, can be revolting” (Alden p.
183). Yet the devil tries to
convince us that “more” is always better.
Sadly, how many people in the world can no longer enjoy the simple
pleasures of life because they can’t be content with the wonderful blessings
that God has already given them?
“No matter how far we jack up the intensity, our appetite
simply rises to just above whatever new level we have reached. Because of this, stimulation must be
constantly increased to match our voracious appetites. This is the nature of the intensity trap,
and it can escalate into what I have labeled ‘the cycle of addiction’. Even as we pursue and seek it, satisfaction
eludes us because our needs expand at an even quicker rate. Appetite is forever exceeding stimulation’s
expansion” (p. 23). “Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, nor are the eyes
of men ever satisfied” (Proverbs 27:20). The
grave or death is personified as having an appetite. Seemingly it always wants another live person dead. In like manner, the eyes of man are never
satisfied. People constantly want to
see new things (Ecclesiastes 1:8).
“The comparison of restless eyes to the grave is probably intentionally
sinister here; cemeteries are full of people who died still thinking wealth
could bring them happiness” (Alden p. 193). Only in Jesus Christ, can the restlessness of man find any real
satisfaction (Matthew 11:28-30; John 4:13-14; Philippians 4:11-13). The person who has given free reign to their
lusts must come to terms with the reality of this verse. If you determine to search for happiness
apart from God, you will never find it.
“The body’s natural pleasure chemicals make everyday life
interesting and enjoyable. However,
this exquisite system is also a delicate one.
It provides us the capacity to enjoy life, but its existence by
no means guarantees that it will forever operate optimally. In fact, our enjoyment system operates on a
‘use it wisely or lost it’ basis, just as so many of our other capacities
do. People who flood their pleasure
systems with intense stimulation essentially overload the circuits, spoiling to
some extent their future capacity to enjoy the more natural doses that result
from what once were enjoyable activities.
We pay a long-term, sometimes permanent price for immediate rewards that
are artificially or improperly induced” (p. 23). Paul noted that greed brings with it temptation, snares and
many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction (1
Timothy 6:9). Then he said, “For
the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it
have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1
Timothy 6:10). One of those griefs
is we can become desensitized. We can
expose ourselves to so much violence and gore by watching various movies that
we no longer have any empathy when someone suffers. We can turn human sexuality into thrill-seeking where we can no
longer appreciate human touch or a mere kiss.
“Eventually, forget about ecstasy, the addicted individual can’t even
feel normal without the excessive behavior or the drug. This is the paradoxical nature of the cycle
of addiction: We add more and more
stimulation only to find that it does less and less for us” (p. 25).
“When we act as though the intensity or quality of
stimulation is the key to enjoying life, we lock ourselves in a vicious cycle
and become like dogs chasing our tails.
Instead of more enjoyment, our tactic leads to less. Yesterday’s pin-up poster becomes today’s
magazine ad, and today’s thrilling blockbuster becomes tomorrow’s yawner. Whenever an activity is pursued for the
sheer thrill of it, it seems that in that very indulgence we lose some of our
capacity to be thrilled, and even our capacity to enjoy generally. We become every more callused and hard to
please” (pp. 26-27). Thus,
Solomon marries wife number 700 and is still not happy (1 Kings 11:3;
Ecclesiastes 2:11). “No matter how
good we have it, we can quickly adjust to the status quo. It is easy for our feelings to shift from
appreciation to contentment to complacency to entitlement. Then, once we reach entitlement, it’s not
difficult to take that next step to actual resentment. We feel as if we don’t have enough. We want more. We deserve more. We need
more, and we shouldn’t have to wait for it.
These are the seductive lies appetite tells us” (p. 14). We see this graphically played out in the
city of Sodom. The men in that city
seemed to have all the pleasure they wanted but when they were challenged or
told that two men were off limits all of a sudden they were filled with
resentment and anger (Genesis 19:9).
A modern paraphrase of Romans 1:26-27 reads as follows,
“Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women
didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled
one another---all lust, no love” (The Message Bible).
The Roman Empire was addicted to the blood-lust provided in
the Roman arena, in fact, Cicero, a member of the Roman Senate, could see the
direction his society was headed, “The daily spectacle of atrocious acts has
stifled all feeling of pity in the hearts of men. When every hour we see or hear of an act of dreadful cruelty we
lose all feeling of humanity. Crime no
longer horrifies us. We smile at the
enormities of our youth. We condone
passion, when we should understand that the unrestrained emotions of men
produce chaos. Once we were a nation of
self-control, and had a reverence for life and justice. This is no longer true. We prefer our politicians, particularly if
they swagger with youth and are accomplished jesters and liars. We love entertainment, even in law and
government. Unless we reform our fate
is terrible” (Caldwell, A Pillar of
Iron, p. 322). Chamberlain
observes, “Ultimately the Roman rulers could not support the habits they helped
create. They could no longer put on a show
that topped the last one, and the people were no longer content to settle for
less. The system, depending upon
ever-escalating intensity, collapsed in upon itself” (p. 32).
· We are seeing more and more violence and immorality on Television. Even commercials are becoming more and more graphic.
·
There are more and more violent and graphic video games.
·
We are witnessing a culture that is both bored and
hardened. More marriages end in divorce
due to boredom, more people say that their lives lack excitement, and more
people complain about their work than perhaps ever before. It seems that everything is extreme
these days.
Producers and entertainers often claim that they are pushing
the envelope of acceptability from the motivation of artistic merit or as being
a champion of free expression. The
truth of the matter is that many of them are pushing the limits from the
motivation of capturing ratings, making money, and staying on top. Sadly, many in the entertainment industry
are all in a mad dash to reach the bottom.
In view of the above truths we need to be thankful that we have not been automatically given everything that we thought we could not live without. Self-control is so important because instead of keeping us from fun, it actually enables us to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Next time you are tempted to opt for immediate sinful gratification remember that such a choice will only reduce your ability to enjoy the everyday blessings in this life. Being content with our blessings is far more priceless than the actual value of what we do possess. The real blessing is not the object, but the right attitude towards what we have.
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com