Why Do I Feel SO Dissatisfied?

I asked my friend how his job was going, and his eyes glazed over. He shrugged and said, "Meh, it's fine, I guess." I've seen this look before; in fact, increasingly, it feels like the default response to that question. 

Like a fog, a low-grade dissatisfaction lingers over almost everyone I interact with. There are no dramatic cries for help, just a resignation that the thing that dominates the overwhelming majority of the time, other than sleep, is…well…”fine, I guess.”

For those without a belief in God, I'm honestly not surprised that this is the condition they find themselves in. If nothing transcends the material, meaning can only be derived from the material. Trillions of years from now, our sun will have burned out in heat death, and this world and everything in it will be gone.

Every building built, song written, and relationship nurtured will no longer exist - not even as a memory. That's a happy thought, right? Welcome to the world of the Secular Humanist.

A worldview that is committed to a godless, material universe might sound liberating, but is the cure worse than the disease? What are the consequences of this mindset? We have never been more overworked, anxious, burnt out, and dissatisfied.

But my friend is a follower of Jesus, so why is he dissatisfied? And he's not alone. Many of my fellow Christians feel lost. They lack purpose, and they know it.

It's tempting to simply blame this on the broken world ushered in by the fall. Maybe deep satisfaction just isn't available to us on this side of eternity.

But my soul rebels and cries out, "False!" Partially because I don't feel lost. I have a life full of purpose and deep satisfaction. I know why I'm here, and make no distinction between Monday and Friday - I love what I do.

Did I just win the lottery? Am I one of the lucky ones who got a good job?

Emphatically, no.

If God is good - and He is - then a deep soul satisfaction is available to everyone. It cannot be tethered to our circumstances. I love writing, recording podcasts, and traveling the world sharing Jesus, but apart from God, these are monotonous and ultimately empty.

King Solomon had it all. He was rich, famous, and powerful. No one's life compares with his, and yet, as an old man, he said these haunting words,

"I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

The fact is nothing under the sun, no matter how extravagant, can produce the deep sense of purpose every human heart longs for.

The true source of deep satisfaction does not discriminate. It isn't at the mercy of unequally distributed talent or opportunity. It isn't deterred by the whims of a broken and capricious world. It isn't limited by poverty, the capricious cruelty of disease, or the good fortune of the lottery.

It isn't an “it" at all.

There is only one soul-satisfying nutrient - God Himself. This is the secret. This is why I have hope for my life and the lives of my friends.

Resist the patterns of this world and choose God instead. Otherwise, you will join the world in its quest to find “out there” what can only be found in God - and will settle for "fine, I guess," instead of the deep rest and transcendent purpose available to all who seek it out.