Satisfaction # 1
In 1965 the Rolling Stones released a song titled Satisfaction. It is a very catchy tune and has some great lyrics.
Here is a sample of them…
I can’t get no satisfaction
I can’t get no satisfaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can’t get no, I can’t get no
When I’m drivin’ in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He’s tellin’ me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can’t get no, oh no, no, no
Hey hey hey, that’s what I say
I can’t get no satisfaction
I can’t get no satisfaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can’t get no, I can’t get no
When I’m watchin’ my T. V.
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke
The same cigarettes as me
I can’t get no, oh no, no, no
Hey hey hey, that’s what I say
I can’t get no satisfaction
I can’t get no girl with action
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can’t get no, I can’t get no
When I’m ridin’ round the world
And I’m doin’ this and I’m signing that
And I’m tryin’ to make some girl
Who tells me baby better come back later next week
‘Cause you see I’m on a losing streak
I can’t get no, oh no, no, no
Hey hey hey, that’s what I say
I can’t get no, I can’t get no
I can’t get no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction
(Satisfaction, The Rolling Stones, 1965)
You get the idea that the Stones were singing for all of us. Satisfaction is awesome until you realize you’re not satisfied anymore. It is just amazing that we can work and buy something new and two days after a newer better one is released and we are no longer satisfied with what we have. It is just super irritating to always be one release behind.
This is not a new thing by any means at all. People have been searching for satisfaction since Adam and Eve walked out of the garden. A king in Israel in fact wrote a book that explores a person’s search for satisfaction through different areas of life. How about we read along with him and see if we can’t figure out a little something about our own pursuit of satisfaction.
Solomon writes about not finding satisfaction in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verses 4 – 11. He expresses the disappointment we all feel at times. He gives us five thoughts about our search for satisfaction.
Solomon asks a question many of us have asked as we clock in for work. He writes in Ecclesiastes 1:2 – 3, “The Teacher says, ‘Useless! Completely useless! Everything is useless.” What do people really gain from all the hard work they here on earth?” He wants to know when will I get some satisfaction from this 9 to 5 torture that I do so that I can afford things that are outdated when I buy them. Work does seem to just come at us each morning and offers nothing but pain at times. So why is it many times when we meet someone for the first time, we ask, “So, what do you do for a living?” I mean do any of us want to remember our job when we are not actually at work. But, still we seem to try to wish or look for the perfect job so we can be satisfied with our work. So how do we find value in our work? We’ll talk about it. First step is to realize that our work may not always bring the satisfaction we are searching for in our life.
Solomon keeps on a roll when he talks about how quickly life seems to change around us. He writes in verse 4, “People live, and people die, but the earth continues forever.” Being a pastor I have watched many times as families say goodbye to someone they love just when everything seems to have fallen into place for them. The problem is that if we try to satisfy ourselves with the fact that we are alive and well, all it takes is a doctor visit to change our entire lives. We are born and we jump into the pool of life and make a big splash, but then eventually the water will settle down again and you may not even be able to tell we were ever even in the pool. So how do we find satisfaction in a life that will eventually end? Well that is a question we can spend a lifetime trying to answer. Maybe we can try to talk it through in the next couple of weeks.
Does it ever seem to you that all of life is just sort of like a boring, repetitive cycle? Solomon saw it that way when he continues his thoughts in verses 5 – 8. “The sun rises, the sun sets, and then it hurries back to where it rises again. The wind blows to the South; it blows to the North. It blows from one direction and then another. Then it turns around and repeats the same pattern, going nowhere. All the rivers flow to the sea, but the sea never becomes full. Everything is boring, so boring that you don’t even want to talk about it.” Man Solomon needs to relax a little. I mean you can either be happy or sad with a sunrise. But you definitely can get tired with either one. So when life is just a mark on the wall, how do we become satisfied with the days we have lived? Well, hold on for a couple of days and we will look at it to see if we can make a difference with the mundane day to day way of the world.
Some people think that if they just know a little bit more, then they can be satisfied with their knowledge. Solomon a man who was considered one of the wisest man to ever live wrote: “Words come again and again to our ears, but we never hear enough, nor can we ever really see all we want to see.” Solomon keeps his somewhat weird momentum going as he says that we can try to be satisfied with what we know, until we talk to someone who knows a little bit more than we do. All of the sudden we feel the need to go back to school, Google a little bit more knowledge just so we don’t feel behind the old eight ball of knowledge. We just need to always keep in mind that no matter how much we know there will always be a chance to learn something more. So it sort of seems useless to keep learning. Well, maybe depending on what you do with you learn. Sounds like something we might can talk about soon.
The next thought Solomon writes we have all heard said a few times. “All things continue the way they have been since the beginning. What has happened will happen again; there is nothing new here on earth. Someone might say, ‘Look, this is new,’ but really it has always been here. It was here before we were. People don’t remember what happened long ago, and in the future people will not remember what happens now. Even later, other people will not remember what was done before them.” No matter what is invented and no matter what the news says, stuff is pretty much the same as it has always been. It does just all flow together and we get lost in how much it all blends together. In a world that is just bland and the same how are we going to stand out? You just have to come back for the advice Solomon delivers later in Ecclesiastes.
So Solomon is searching like we are. How will I be satisfied in a world that is always changing and always not just being normal? Next week we will continue this journey to try to show Mick just how to find Satisfaction.