Excess

“But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:4).
As Christmas approaches this year, I am aware that I am tripping over toys constantly, yet planning to buy more for my children. My five-year old son began to ask for everything he sees this past year. We knew it had gotten out of hand when he asked for a laundry ball after seeing a commercial for one! It seems the more we have, the more we want. There is no end to human desire.
We are all born with an emptiness in our soul that can only be filled with a relationship with God. However, because we do not want to pursue that route, we try to fill this emptiness with other things. “Other things” may be obvious such as drugs, sex, or money. Or, they may be less obvious to others—food, shopping, sports, hobbies, children, etc. How do you spend most of your free time? What gets you excited? What consumes your thoughts? Most likely, you will not have to think hard to find an answer. Many of these “other things” are not wrong in and of themselves, but when you feel like you cannot get enough of it, you are trying to feel an emptiness that cannot be filled with this object. Excess is a result of trying to feel a void with the wrong things.
I have tried to fill my void with various things during my life. I would think that “such and such” will make me happy. Or when I finally get “here”, I will be happy. We often become “obsessed” with something or someone. Every time we do this and it is not God, we will still feel the emptiness. We go up and down like a roller coaster—happy for awhile, then disappointment—temporarily content, then searching for more. The author of Ecclesiastes speaks of this phenomenon. He found out that wisdom is meaningless. Pleasure is meaningless. Work is meaningless. “And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy” (Ecclesiastes 2:10a). Yet all he found was meaningless—it is like “chasing the wind”. “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 12:8). Indeed, the author of Ecclesiastes was the result of his father, King David temporarily forgetting this very truth. David ruled the entire kingdom, yet wanted more. He wanted Bathsheba, even though he had the whole kingdom. David, as the author of many Psalms, is well-known for his relationship with the Lord, yet he temporarily lost focus as a result of wanting more. He took Bathsheba from her loyal husband and made her his wife. As a result, David found emptiness in a powerful way by losing the baby they had conceived. David repented and again pursued a relationship with God and Solomon the wise author of Ecclesiastes resulted.
The younger we are when we finally realize this truth, the wiser we are. When we realize that the void in our lives can ONLY be filled with a relationship with God, we can then stop “chasing the wind” and stop wasting time, money, and energy on things that will not satisfy. I have learned that this “void” is not filled at the point of salvation, but only filled when a genuine relationship with God is pursued. There is a difference between salvation and relationship. Saved people also may spend their lives chasing other passions trying to fill their emptiness. Stop wasting time, seek the water that satisfies, seek the food that fills, and seek the relationship that brings peace and happiness. Jesus said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. The Apostle Paul says of Jesus in Ephesians 1:23, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”.