Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (ESV).
What are some things a lot of people seek to feel satisfied? Or just depend on to cope with life? I can speak for myself when I say that weed was a way for me to hide my pain and feel like, “Life sucks, but as long as I have my weed, I can get by.” Cigarettes are one of the most openly accepted addictions of society. Smokers argue that they “need” cigarettes for their stressful times and that they simply cannot stop. Everyone knows someone that chose or still chooses alcohol as their escape. Numbing all those bad feelings and using it as the best excuse for the worst decisions like domestic abuse, sleeping around or just acting a fool. A lot of young men are overcome by their lustful desires believing “If I can just score with her, I will be satisfied.” No more loneliness, no more pain; just simply using someone’s body for pleasure. Some bend over backwards trying to fit in or impress a certain crowd. Or just trying to keep up with what their friends are doing or the evolving culture around them. If they can just fit in, it would be so satisfying. Or what about… Boom… MONEY! How you want to earn it, how much you want to have, how you want to spend it. The education you want to get for the career you want to have someday thinking, “If I can just fulfill this dream of the perfect career for my interests and preferences, then I will be satisfied.” In the action sports community with our many passions like skateboarding or snowboarding or art or music… We just wish we could somehow make a living doing our favorite thing professionally and that then we’d be satisfied, right?
Everyone’s got their life planned out already for when they hit the lotto. Jonny, Ian, Noah and I (the JSAW staff) could finally get a 2014 Honda Civic or Ford Focus and we’d finally all have the satisfying feeling of a reliable car. We’d take care of our families and friends. Our mommas won’t have to work no more because we can put her up in a nice house. Our ministry would have all the money and resources needed to transform action sports culture for God’s kingdom and glory. We could buy everything else we feel we need so we can finally be satisfied. Like that Drake song goes “I want the money, money and the cars, cars and the clothes, the…. ladies, I suppose, I just want to be successful.”
This idea so massively believed by society is that if we can acquire everything we feel we need to get by, we will finally be satisfied and be able to live in peace. Bottom line, if we make the things of this world our comfort and satisfaction we will never have peace. The constant chase for these things will eventually lead to our destruction. God loves us more than we can ever know or comprehend. He knows better than we do what is good and what is bad for us. It is only in his presence that we can find true peace.