Satisfied with Life (Part 1)

Just three words — yet among the most elusive and incomprehensible in human experience: that inner peace which transcends all understanding, the deepest craving of humanity. Only one person who ever walked this earth truly possessed it: Jesus Christ. If you are His true disciple, you are walking the road less traveled that ultimately leads there. Even Jesus was known as a man of sorrows during His earthly life. He never told a lie, never stole, never looked at a woman with lust. He came to do His Father's will, accomplished it, and returned to the Father.

The reason true satisfaction is so elusive in this life is that every one of us is a sinner, living in a fallen and sinful world. Even the one perfect man who ever walked this earth wasn't spared misunderstanding — His own mother and half-brothers said of Him, "He is out of His mind." The religious teachers of the law said, "He is possessed by demons."

One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather. Soon He and His disciples couldn't even find time to eat. When His mother and half-brothers heard what was happening, they tried to take Him away. "He's out of his mind," they said. But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, "He's possessed by Satan, the prince of demons. That's where he gets the power to cast out demons." (Mark 3:20–22)

If we're seeking validation from a world that crucified the only perfect man who ever lived, we haven't even begun the journey toward that ultimate destination: being satisfied with life. If people-pleasing is what you hunger and thirst for, stop reading — this isn't for you.

Two Names in the Whole of Scripture

Roughly 3,416 unique names appear in the Bible. Only two of them come with this exact verdict attached: satisfied with life. Both are Old Testament figures who lived without the clear understanding we now have — that Jesus Christ would one day come to save sinners by taking our sin upon Himself on a cross. Abraham and David both lived deeply imperfect lives, and yet God's final word over each of them was the same: satisfied with life. Whatever Scripture and direct revelation from God they had, they followed it as best they could. Both were imperfect men, and still the Bible records the identical verdict over both of them.

King David died in a good old age [in his seventy-first year], full of days [satisfied], riches, and honor. Solomon his son reigned in his place. (1 Chronicles 29:28)

Abraham lived to be 175 years; he breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man who was satisfied [with life]; and he was gathered to his people [who had preceded him in death]. (Genesis 25:8, both verses quoted from the Amplified Bible)

Abraham and David stand out in Scripture like Mount Everest — even a casual reader can't escape these two figures. Abraham's name is mentioned 308 times in the Bible. David's name is mentioned 970 times. The only name mentioned more often than David's is Jesus Christ, at 1,280 times. David died at seventy-one; Abraham at 175. Abraham is known as the man of faith — God tested him by asking him to sacrifice his most cherished son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. God testified about David as "a man after My own heart."

A man of faith, and a man after God's own heart. Is there any greater desire for your life or mine, in this brief existence, than to hear from our Maker one day: Well done, My child — welcome to your eternal home, now that your pilgrim journey is over? Satisfied with life. Died, and gathered to his people.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." Annie Dillard's reminder still lands: what we do with this hour, this day, is what shapes the whole of our existence. Small, daily habits and choices form an entire life.

Jeremiah and the Road Less Traveled

Jeremiah has a few things to teach us about this road less traveled — both what to do, and what not to do. Eugene Peterson put it well: Jeremiah's life was not an American "pursuit of happiness" — it was closer to God in pursuit of Jeremiah. He doesn't sugarcoat anything; he tells us who we really are:

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Raising a hand or repeating a prayer doesn't automatically make us true disciples of Jesus Christ. For many of us who grew up in evangelical churches, it was just fire insurance. We learned early: heaven is good, and everyone we loved who died is there; hell is for bad people. Who wouldn't raise a hand or repeat a few words under those terms? For most of us, this is what's called cheap grace. We convinced ourselves — and everyone around us — that we were Christians. That's part of why some of the most selfish and pompous people you'll ever meet are sitting in church pews, and also some of the most miserable.

True disciples of Jesus Christ know the truth about themselves: our hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful. We can make every effort to clean up that wretched heart on our own, and it's all wasted effort. If being satisfied in life and in death is our ultimate destiny, there is only one hope — the one perfect man who walked this earth two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ. All thirty-nine books of the Old Testament point toward His coming. All twenty-seven books of the New Testament tell us about His life and how we're meant to live during this brief journey. If you believe it was for your wretched, deceitful heart and mine — that each of our sins was a nail hammered into the hands of Jesus Christ — then that's the place to begin: satisfied in life and in death. For that kind of life, there is no other person but Jesus Christ, and no other book but God's living Word, the Bible.

Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless you are born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (John 3:3). The Bible is God's living Word — it leads us to Jesus Christ and helps us grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. We live in the era of the megachurch, where politics, prosperity gospel, bigger buildings, and larger numbers are what many people think define a successful church. That explains a lot about the superficiality and shallowness of our time. Finding a small church that doesn't care about the size of its building, but cares about nourishing your soul and mine — the way a mother cares for and nourishes her newborn — is where real growth in grace and in the knowledge of God happens. It will take some research, and visiting more than a few churches. If what you hear is politics, prosperity, and noise with no substance, keep looking until you find one that teaches from Genesis to Revelation, book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

Since Jeremiah has already opened our eyes to see our true selves, let him help guide the rest of this journey too:

Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. (Jeremiah 17:5–6)

Every one of us knows something about that barren wilderness life — chasing perfection, chasing greater wealth, fame, and admiration. It's a lot like high school: we were all so consumed with what others thought of us, and then we graduated, and most of us never saw half those people again. If what people think of you is a big deal to you, you will live the most miserable existence in this brief life. But when your worth and your reason to live come from Jesus Christ — who hung on a cross to redeem you from your wretched, deceitful sin — that is life, and abundant life. When God's living Word, the Bible, becomes your life-sustaining bread and water, you're growing in grace and in the knowledge of God. Jeremiah's images — a stunted shrub in the desert, a life in barren wilderness, a life in an uninhabited, salty land — are all pictures of people who lived for the world, and will die with it.

I warned you when you were prosperous, but you replied, "Don't bother me." You have been that way since childhood — you simply will not obey me! (Jeremiah 22:21)

For the land is full of adultery, and it lies under a curse. The land itself is in mourning — its wilderness pastures are dried up. For they all do evil and abuse what power they have. "Even the priests and prophets are ungodly, wicked men. I have seen their despicable acts right here in my own temple," says the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:10–11)

But now I see that the prophets of Jerusalem are even worse! They commit adultery and love dishonesty. They encourage those who are doing evil, so that no one turns away from their sins. These prophets are as wicked as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah once were. (Jeremiah 23:14)

It sounds like Jeremiah could have been talking about our own time. Google the names of once-great orators, pastors, and writers of our era — the sewage of our time is almost unimaginable: the worship of politicians, prosperity gospels, and materialism.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve." (Jeremiah 17:7–10)

The book of Jeremiah has so much to say to our time. Is the world we each inhabit now really any different from Sodom and Gomorrah, or the days of Noah? Do we really think we're going to escape the wrath of God? The Lord had long warned Israel of coming judgment, going all the way back to Moses. He warned both Israel and Judah through prophet after prophet — including Elijah and Elisha, two of the greatest prophets in Israel's history — trying again and again to turn His people back to Him. Nebuchadnezzar's initial invasion occurred just twenty-two years after Jeremiah began his ministry.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

There's a reason the world we inhabit is filled with every kind of abomination and depravity. Everyone seems to be feasting on the garbage flowing in from around the globe. If you can't sit still for thirty minutes without scrolling a device or reaching for the TV remote, you're a lost person — and it will pull you deeper and deeper into the depravities of life. Spend enough time listening to today's foul-mouthed, brain-dead politicians and their spokespeople, and you'll start repeating their language, thinking like them, and behaving like them. Isn't it time to ask: why am I watching this? Is there anything of redeeming value in all this noise? Is all this social media just pure junk? Whatever is filling your head with garbage — why not ask yourself: why am I watching and listening to this?

Once we filter the garbage out of our minds and hearts, we can put Paul's most important advice into practice:

Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me — everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8–9)

It's a daily, moment-by-moment decision to fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Taking every thought captive to obedience is no easy task; without the Holy Spirit's help and guidance, it's impossible.

When the Holy Spirit reminds us of a failure on our part — and we will fail, as long as we're breathing — remember the Apostle John's words:

If we think we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (1 John 1:8–9)

Tell God where you failed, then seek His forgiveness. If you've wronged someone in word or deed, go to them as soon as possible, own what you did, and seek reconciliation. (Imagine how many psychiatric hospitals could empty out, how many people could finally get a good night's sleep, if we all actually did this.) The truth is, it's an almost impossible task to swallow our pride, take responsibility for our sins and failures, make restitution, and seek a new beginning. If it were easy, Adam and Eve would have at least tried — with the God they walked with every day, in constant relationship. If they couldn't bring themselves to ask forgiveness from a God they walked and talked with daily, how much harder is it for us?

Growing Up

The writer of Hebrews has some advice on this:

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. (Hebrews 5:12)

Some children just aren't ready to let go of the bottle and move on to a sippy cup. Eventually the mother has had enough, and the child graduates. Now imagine that same child, old enough for high school, still can't let go of the sippy cup — someone needs to call Child Protective Services on that mother. How many people sit in church pews year after year and are still, spiritually, pure infants?

Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1–2)

As Paul said: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways (1 Corinthians 13:11).

What are the "dead works" the writer of Hebrews mentions? They look different for each of us. One of the last sermons Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ever preached was called "The Drum Major Instinct." His core insight: at the heart of human desire is a longing to be out front, to lead the parade. King warned his congregation that this same desire for importance, left unchecked, can curdle into what he called "snobbish exclusivism" and even "tragic race prejudice." He put it bluntly — that a great deal of the racial problem in America traces back to this same drum major instinct: some people's need to feel superior, to believe that the color of their skin somehow put them first.

It's not only about skin color. It shows up in wealth, too — I'm rich, you're not; I'm beautiful, you're not; I have powerful friends, you don't; or worst of all, I'm more spiritual than you. Every one of these excuses we invent in our heads traces back to that same drum major instinct — an emptiness inside, crying out to feel significant. Toni Morrison put it well: if the only way you can feel tall is by making someone else kneel, something in your soul is seriously broken.

The need to feel superior — wealthier, more powerful, more affluent, more authoritative, always needing to dominate — comes from a deeply flawed psyche and a malnourished soul. The only antidote for a flawed psyche and a malnourished soul is Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Shut out the polluted noise of the world, wherever it's coming from. Open God's Word — not to argue, not to become famous, but the way young Samuel did in Eli the high priest's house: "Speak, Lord, I am listening." First, you need to become honest with God, and willing to confront all the dead works of your life.

Is there anything worse than spiritual pride? Only people in my denomination are true Christians. We're the only ones going to heaven. We have the biggest, oldest church in town. We've got people who've memorized the whole Bible. The list could go on forever.

So what does your spouse really think about your walk with the Lord? What does the coworker in the next cubicle hear when you open your mouth? When you hit a bad golf shot, what do the other players hear come out of you? Has anyone ever come to you when they were down and struggling? Our lives are walking billboards for everyone who observes us. What are they seeing and hearing from all these "superior spiritual" people?

If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. (Luke 16:10)

The Humble and the Contrite

God's promises are made for the humble and the contrite. A proud person knows nothing about the fact that God's gifts are reserved for people with a humble and contrite heart. The Psalmist says, "Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Thy Word" (Psalm 119:67). "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4).

There's a wonderful story in 1 Samuel 16. God sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse's home to anoint the next king. Jesse lined up his seven favorite sons — tall, handsome, charming, every one of them. Samuel finally asked, "Are these all the sons you have?" "Oh, there's one more," Jesse said, "but he's just a shepherd boy." "Send for him at once!" Too bad iPhones didn't exist yet — it would have been priceless to capture the look on those seven brothers' faces.

The Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

God always honors those who are humble and contrite.

Only a Forgiven Sinner

I began this piece writing about Abraham and David, two of God's dearest servants from the Old Testament. I want to close with one of His servants from our own era: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

As his health deteriorated, Dr. Lloyd-Jones wrote a note to his wife and daughters: "Do not pray for my healing. Do not hold me back from the glory." That was the Doctor's own phrase for heaven — "the glory." He never got over how far the Most High God had come down to save him. He knew himself to be a sinner saved by grace. He asked Vernon Higham to preach at his funeral on the loveliness of Christ and an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom.

As Higham was leaving the room, Lloyd-Jones suddenly called him back. "I am only a forgiven sinner — there is nothing more to me than that," he said. Don't talk about me, he told him; talk about the Savior.

In a Welsh graveyard, a simple gravestone sums up his entire ministry with the very words of the text he preached in his first sermon, fifty-five years earlier — 1 Corinthians 2:2:

In Loving Memory of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Beloved Doctor, 1899–1981. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

R.C. Sproul famously compared Lloyd-Jones to Charles Spurgeon — calling him the prophet to the twentieth century that Spurgeon had been to the nineteenth. Spurgeon died at fifty-seven. Lloyd-Jones died at eighty-one.

Who will even remember us two weeks after we're gone? If Jesus Christ hasn't returned a hundred years from now, every one of us reading this will be gone from here — and God-hungry people will still be listening to Dr. Lloyd-Jones. His sermons are timeless — he never worshipped the politicians of his day, and he never preached a prosperity gospel of fame, wealth, power, or human glory. He'll tell you plainly: a truly born-again child's life is a life of progression — the Bible calls it sanctification. A lifelong journey of each of us becoming less and less, so that we can become more and more like the image and character of Jesus Christ.

His constant theme: if Christ in you — the hope of glory — isn't there, you're not a Christian. You're just a pretender. He never sugar-coated the gospel. He would tell you plainly: superficial Christianity has little or no real impact on a Christian's life. The best marriage should be a true Christian marriage. The best home should be a true Christian home. The best parent should be a true Christian parent. The best child should be a true Christian child. The best workers should always be true Christians — best in knowledge and understanding, best in experience, best in character — because they are the ones most filled with the Holy Spirit. He was never impressed by show-business Christianity. He preached — and lived — doctrine and life together. We're called to travel that same narrow road, the one that leads to resurrection from the dead, and to hearing, "Well done, My child, welcome to your eternal home."

If you are truly a born-again child of God, you'll make every effort to understand the doctrines of God's Holy Book, the Bible — and then live your life, in front of a watching world, in a way that brings Him glory. Those who live a God-glorifying life will shine brightly for all to see. And on our appointed day, God will write next to our name: satisfied with life, gathered to his people. Well done, My good and faithful child.

Is there any real point in seeking validation from a world that crucified the only perfect man who ever walked the earth? When we can finally say, along with John Newton — who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace" — near the end of his life:

"I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."

These are the ones God writes into His book as satisfied with life — gathered, at last, to the people who went before them in death.