I don’t know why I was chosen but I was. I was the one who would take our daughter to the Westminster Mall to get clothes before she headed back to school in the fall. She must have been in Junior High School or High School at that time. I went with the best attitude that I could muster.

Initially, I encouraged her to look at the clearance rack or the clothes that would be on sale. After all, her brothers would have to be buying things before school began, as well. We went in together and I was telling her how good the top, or pants or sweater would look on her. She didn’t seem to respect my opinion. I told her that I would wait outside and let her decide on the clothes. After a while I returned inside the store and found out that this store really didn’t have what she was looking for. So we went to another store.

But they didn’t have what she was looking for either. Now I didn’t see a shortage of styles and colors and types but the second store didn’t have what she wanted either. By the time that we walked to the other end of the mall, going to stores that only wealthy people would enter I told her, “Get something that you’ll wear. Don’t worry about the price” What was I saying!! I must have been out of my mind!! But, you know what? She didn’t find anything there either. We left the Westminster Mall that day never to go back again in a father/daughter shopping trip.

My daughter is going to be a mother for the first time in just a few months and I hope that she can give birth to a girl so she can go shopping with her daughter about 14 years after her birth!! My problem, (and I have a lot of them when it comes to shopping with others) is that she wasn’t satisfied with the thousands of choices that she could have made. But my daughter is not alone. Some look in their closet, loaded with enough clothes to clothe an army, and say, “I don’t have anything to wear!!” Or we walk into the kitchen, and the cupboards are full, the freezer is full and the refrigerator is full and we whine, “There is nothing to eat in this house!!”

Living in contentment and satisfaction is difficult. We believe that Solomon, King David’s son, known to be both smart and wise wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. In chapter 5 he says, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.” (Verse 10) Never satisfied. Never content. Never happy. At times we can always live with the appetite for more. I guess at times we can be high maintenance!!

Last week we ran into the account of the rich young ruler. He came to Jesus and asked the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life.” When Jesus exposed his heart and said, “One thing you lack – go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” He left, sad. His money, even the lots of it that he had did not bring him joy. It got in the way of him following Jesus.

In Luke’s Gospel (12:16-21) Jesus tells a parable about how unsatisfied an older rich man became. The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods’. And I’ll say to myself,’ You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.

Unsatisfied. The outcome of both of them was not a good end. One met Jesus and left Him sad. Another was simply unprepared to live life in eternity when his life was over. From the view that one has to be in a relationship of faith and trust with Jesus Christ to have a fully satisfied life, one that is fully content, these men were amazingly dissatisfied, much more than my daughter ever was!!

There was a gentlemen, an Englishman, who had spent a number of months in Africa. The part of Africa where he had gone was quite poor. The people had food and water and a place to call home, but little else. During his stay down there he noticed the joy of living that they had. When they came together as a community, when they worked, when they worshipped, they spoke to each other and laughed and smiled - they had a contentment and joy that amazed him. He returned home to England and was traveling on a bus. The people traveling were businessmen and women, dressed nicely. But as he looked around he didn’t see a smile, no one spoke, the silence was overwhelming. In his article he compared the groups and asked, “Who were the richer of the two?”

Contentment and satisfaction are difficult for some to have. Some are not satisfied with life, or their place in life. We can look at others and feel that they have been given much more than we. Do you find yourself satisfied, or is it something beyond your grasp? In the New Testament Paul writes, “I have learned the secret of being content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11-13)

We are satisfied in what God has given to us and what He has done for us. He gives to us more good things than we can ever ask or imagine. In a section in the Gospels called The Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable then they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:25-27)

We can be satisfied in Him and in the heart He has for us. We can satisfied that He takes our life and makes it much deeper and with a greater purpose than we could ever create on our own. In our text from Ecclesiastes we read this, “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him.” (5:18) There is a satisfaction in doing the daily things of life – the routine, the everyday elements that everyone is asked to do!! This section also says that it is a gift of God to be happy in your work. (See Ecclesiastes 5:19)

I saw a couple this week who looked to be satisfied in the simplest of things. Jim and Milly Reeves have had more than their share of health problems. And now it has seem to hit Jim the hardest. The doctors are treating him for bladder cancer and the neurologist is running tests to see if he has Parkinson’s because his legs just aren’t working like they should work. But Jim has a goal that he wants to accomplish – it would give him the greatest of satisfactions. Jim is one of our lectors, our readers, and he got notice that he is scheduled for a Sunday in December to read. And if he can get those feet walking up these few steps he is going to do it. What a great satisfaction he and Milly will have if he can do that huge thing. Jim is showing me that we should find satisfaction in the everyday things of life!!

Satisfied? I hope you are. I hope you don’t have to wait another month, on Thanksgiving, to tell God and others that you “have learned the secret of being content.” And our contentment, our satisfaction, is not just in what we have and own, what our hands are able to do, but it is found in what Jesus Christ has done for our souls. We have a Savior, Jesus, who says that everyone who turns to Him, who repents and seeks His face, will find peace and rest and forgiveness. We are content that we are considered righteous, not by our deeds but by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross and by His miraculous resurrection from the grave. We are content, satisfied, that Jesus says that He has gone into heaven to prepare a place for us. He makes a room ready for us, puts our name on the door and gets all the details just perfect for us to be with Him forever. In the Gospel reading for today Jesus tells us that by ourselves we would not have eternal life, we could not be saved, but what is impossible for us is not only possible but also a reality through Jesus. There is satisfaction for us in Jesus. Our deepest needs of forgiveness of sins, peace with God and eternal salvation are given to us in Jesus and Jesus alone!!

Monday night’s baseball game the Rockies against the Phillies had a painful ending. Some of us are still in a depression over it!! The Rockies just needed one more strike to end the game, after they had rallied so wonderfully in the bottom of the eighth inning to take the lead. But they couldn’t get the out and the Phillies took the series. Our satisfaction in Jesus does not get so close and then we find it gone – like an unrealized hope. His satisfaction is true and complete and filled with life.

Satisfied? Yeah!! Amen!!