However, thinking about this made me realize something about people. Humans seem to have an inherent desire for that which they do not have, and an inherent abhorrence, or at least a lack of contentment, with what they do have. If we live somewhere that gets cold and has lots of snow we desire to live somewhere that is sunny and warm. If we live somewhere that is sunny and warm we want to live somewhere that is cold and gets snow. We get bored with what we have, and we end up leaving electronic gadgets lying abandoned when there are other people who would be thrilled to own such gadgets. Those who travel a lot wish they were home more, and those who are home a lot wish they could travel more. We seem to never be satisfied.
It doesn't matter what we have, how good or how bad it is, we are almost never content, and this lack of contentment is, I believe, at the root of most of our problems as human beings. Thinking back to the original sin, it really was a lack of contentment, a belief that the grass was greener on the other side, that got us in trouble in the first place. We were given paradise. literally, everything we could ever need, bliss and immeasurable pleasure, but we were not content. There was one thing that we were not given, and that one thing was what we longed and lusted for, ignoring the beauty that surrounded us, even ignoring the fact that what was withheld from us was death. We blindly craved death with an insatiable appetite, and we got exactly what we wanted. However, once we got it we realized that what we truly wanted was what we had in the first place. We are fickle and schizophrenic beings!
From that day forward we yo-yo back and forth. Why do we steal? Because we are discontent with what we have to such a great extent that we take what does not belong to us to try and make us feel content. Why do people have affairs? Because they are discontent with their husband, wife, or partner and they try to find contentment in someone else. Lying, Cheating, Murder, Disobedience, almost everything, can really be traced back to a discontentment and a desire to have or obtain something that one does not currently possess.
We are the same today as we were at the beginning. God has given us the most lavish, beautiful, valuable, extravagant gift that anyone could hope for. He gives us hope, love, peace, purpose, safety, salvation, and so much more, and many accept it, but before long we become discontent with it and once again crave the depravity of everything outside of Him. God talks about this very thing:
"You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." - Revelation 2:3-5
"As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness." -- Proverbs 26:11
So my challenge, God's command as outlined in the verses above, is this. Stop constantly longing for the things of the flesh. We have a love and a calling that is great beyond compare, and we should be far more than content to stay within God's arms and follow his laws for us. Afterall, outside of this we only have discontentment, which will lead us in a tragic cycle in which every time we finally get what we think we want it turns to vomit in our hands. God is all we should want, and He is all we will ever need! The snow is no whiter, the grass is no greener, than it is with Him!
