Satisfaction (as in "I can't get no...")

I have vivid memories of the Christmas catalog from when I was a child.
 Do you as well? Every year one would come in the mail and

my sister and I would lay on the floor and turn it page by page and make our lists of what we wanted - or sometimes we'd just circle the stuff. Yep, as you guessed it, sometimes we'd have to go get a fresh pen as ours was, suddenly, surprisingly, out of ink! These were the things I wanted to make my Christmas happy - and of course to make me the first kid on the block to have the latest and greatest thingamabob!

Times have changed. One year my son "cut and pasted" off the Toys R Us website what he wanted into a Word document. The ads now come in the Sunday paper and in the sidebars of every other webpage. According to the Chicago Tribune from Dec. 5th preteens most wished for item this year is an IPad; while the children over 13 most desired a computer.  I'm thinking the 1975 $2.77 Malibu Barbie featured here wouldn't exactly give them what they're wanting...?

We want stuff - I, for over a year now, have coveted a kitchen appliance (I know, what a geek right?!) I have priced this machine a million times with a thousand coupons at a half dozen stores just waiting for it to be within the realm of rationalization! Today is it! Today I am getting my long sought for coffee maker and then I will be happy for the rest of my entire life! I will desire nothing ever again!! Wait, did I just see an ad for that new rotating waffle iron... 

We want stuff but what we really want is satisfaction and we think that if we get "xyz" we'll be satisfied, fulfilled, happy - until of course "xyz 2.0" is released...

Why? Why aren't we happy once we get something? Why doesn't the $2.77 Barbie I got in 1975 fulfill all my desires?

There are several reasons - including the materialistic environment in which we live and the skill of marketers in breeding desire. But another reason is less about us as consumers but as people; we're not satisfied forever because we're constantly changing.  Our lives change. Our situations change and with those changes come new things we desire for satisfaction - and I'm not talking about stuff now. I have friends who the wife was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor this spring; the desires of their entire family have changed now from whatever they were to getting good reports from the treatments.  To one who has lost a job, satisfaction is now having a place to go to work. For one without transportation, satisfaction would look like any running vehicle. For one who is painfully aware of the loss of someone during this season their desire is just to have their memories be more of comfort than sorrow.

We keep changing, so what it takes to satisfy us also changes but there is One who never changes and offers us satisfaction.

You satisfy me more than the richest of foods. I will praise you with songs of joy. Psalms 63:5

The people ate their fill. He gave them what they wanted. Psalms 78:29

But I would feed you with the best of foods. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock. Psalms 81:16

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. Psalms 90:14

I will satisfy them with a long life and give them my salvation. Psalms 91:16

He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle's! Psalms 103:5

When you supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them, and they are satisfied. Psalms 104:28

For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalms 107:9.

When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing Psalms 145:16

He sends peace across your nation and satisfies you with plenty of the finest wheat Psalms 147:14No matter what our needs are, or how they change from year to year or moment to moment, we have One who can satisfy our hearts.

Yes, you really can get some satisfaction!