A Mind at Peace
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.” Psalm 23:2
What is it that people desire more than anything? There are several things, but one of them is contentment. There surely seems to be a great number of folks who are discontented with, well, mostly everything. They are always looking for the one thing that will bring happiness, peace, contentment, and make all of their problems disappear. Fat chance of that in this old sin-cursed world. I remember that my mother used to wish she had a magic wand that she could wave over problems and make them go away. She knew that wasn’t possible, and thus she depended on the Lord to help us with our problems. One of the things that she used to say quite frequently was, “Life gets tedious.” By that, she meant that life can be wearisome. You know, the same old, same old, most of the time. On the other hand, I will take tedious any day over calamity. I will admit, though, that sometimes I wish that I could snap my fingers and troubles would vanish. However, all the wishful thinking, magic wands, and finger snapping in the world can never solve our problems.
Regardless of how some political leaders believe they can create a “utopia” on earth by making everything and everyone completely equal, they can’t do it. Their major problem is that they don’t really understand people, and they never seem to consider the consequences of their policies. Even if they could create a “perfect world”, they would have to eliminate every human on earth, including themselves, because all humans are imperfect. Remember Adam and Eve? When God created the world (Genesis 1), it must have been the most beautiful, pleasant, and peaceful place until He made humans. Scripture doesn’t tell us how long that Adam and Eve were living on earth from the time of their creation by God until they disobeyed God. If I had to guess, I would say it probably wasn’t a very long time.
Some malcontents have what is known as a “greener grass mentality”. They believe that moving to a new location, changing jobs, changing spouses, or any number of other changes will provide the contentment that they seek, only to find that life is still without meaning and purpose. One might say that they are “looking for real life in all the wrong places.” Some folks think that life is supposed to always be fun, exciting, and adventurous, but find rather quickly that those times of joy and peace are often of short extent, and hard times are much more prevalent. They then become disillusioned, discontented, and depressed.
However, there is a place where the grass is greener, and life is as calm and peaceful as a pure and clear pond without the slightest ripple. It is a place of joy and contentment that cannot be found through human effort. It is a gift of the One who created us. God created man to glorify Him and anything less than that can never satisfy man’s yearning for meaning and purpose. Without a personal relationship with our Creator God through His Son, Jesus Christ, a man or woman will never fulfill his or her God-given potential for a joyous life as God intended. As the old saying goes, “Your worst day with God is better than your best day without Him.” Amen to that!