Been on the internet much? Then you have probably seen this very gif (read: gif, not jiff. this ain't peanut butter). Normally, you see it when a couple is arguing about where to eat and the stereotype that women can never decide on what they actually want. If you have seen the movie from which it is from (it's okay guys, you don't have to admit it to me) then you know it is actually much more serious than where they are going to eat. Skipping over Allie's unfaithfulness to her actual husband, let's go ahead get right at the question Noah is posing to her: "what do you want."
Simple right? What does she really want? her unhappy life back in the city with her husband or the joy she will find living with Noah. How many of us find this question easy to answer? While the movie makes you side with Noah (yes, I have seen it and I can admit that, I think?) it really isn't an easy question to answer. What do we really want it life? At the risk of being too general, I think I can answer this question for every person on the planet. We want to be fulfilled, satisfied, and a daily dose of Joy. But how do we get that? Allie wrestled with whether she could actually find fulfillment, satisfaction and joy with Noah while leaving her husband. Sure, the movie portrays it like she did. We find out they lived happily ever after with many kids, but c'mon. Anyone married for more than a year knows it ain't that pretty. It never is. Anybody that has been married said length of time will also admit (if they are truly honest) that their spouse is not the source of their satisfaction and joy. Check that, their spouse can be a source of joy and satisfaction, but not the source. So what am I getting at? We are all searching for those three things: Fulfillment, satisfaction, and joy. That manifests itself in numerous ways, and we try to find it in everything from movies and tv to relationships, money, status, careers, skills, and everything in between. Here is the problem with that, we aren't wired to be fulfilled with created things, as we are created beings ourselves. Cast your mind back to Sunday School when you learned about Adam and Eve in the Garden where they had a personal, intimate, real life relationship with God. He literally walked in their midst! So what went wrong? They sought fulfillment and satisfaction in something else: their own knowledge found in the fruit of the tree. If they had simply left the fruit alone, they would still be in perfect communion with God and we wouldn't be mired in death, sickness, and sin. We would all be satisfied and fulfilled and joyful, always. What does that tell us? That we are meant to be fulfilled and satisfied in the creator and not the created. We are meant to be in relationship with God. So I will wrap this up with a question. What do you want. What do you really want? |
Pastor MorganMorgan has been writing since middle school and worked for a year writing professionally as a news journalist for the Daily Tribune in Gallipolis. This blog is a chance for him to express his love for the Lord and all church related things through writing. Archives
December 2019
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