Are You Too Easily Pleased?

For the past few months, I've been attending an amazing Bible study at my husband's seminary. The Bible study covers the book of Hebrews and is an in-depth, word-for-word study. We have been meeting since September, and we probably still won't have finished by the end of Spring!

One thing we have been learning in the Hebrews study, is that we are often far too easily pleased. If you aren't sure what I mean by that, I think C.S. Lewis puts it perfectly:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” -The Weight of Glory 

You see, the book of Hebrews tells us over and over again that Christ is better than anything else we grab on to, anything else we fill our time with, and anything else we try to put our hope in. In every way, Jesus is better.
Money won't fulfill us, family won't fulfill us, even things like church and community will not fulfill us. When we look to those things to give us happiness, and when we accept the small amount of happiness they do give as all-satisfying, we are settling for much less than best. We are far too easily pleased.

Too Pleased with Gifts

Don't get me wrong. God is the giver of good gifts. That community at church, that godly spouse, that beautiful child, and those joyful friends that you've been given are all good things. They have been given to you by a gracious God who saw fit to give you (and me) more than we needed. But when we start appreciating and loving the gifts more than the One who gave them to us in the first place, we are creating idols and setting ourselves up to be dissatisfied.

The reason? God is the only perfect person. Humans make mistakes, humans hurt others, and humans do stupid things. God will never fail us or do something stupid, but everyone else, at some point and in some way, will. And as far as "stuff" goes, it can never fill any sort of deep void. It can be enjoyed, it can be useful, and it can be helpful, but putting our hope in inanimate objects is a barrel of pain just waiting to explode. Things or "stuff" can not fulfill your deepest desires, heal your hurt, or settle your longings. It will always fall short.

God is the only one who will never fall short (Deut. 31:8). And that's why if we allow ourselves to settle for people, status, and things (even the good gifts we have), we are settling too low. We should long for God, the Giver, and be pleased by Him.

Too Pleased With Our Lives

Another way we are far too easily pleased, is in the way we live our day-to-day lives. Think about it. Do you live your life as if it's one giant checklist? You avoided being mean to that person that drives you nuts. Check. You went to church (AND Sunday school) this week. Check. You read your Bible for 10 minutes everyday. Check. Awesome! Now you've had a godly week, right?

But doing good things is not the whole picture. We shouldn't be pleased just because we've checked the "Christian stuff" off of our list this week. Instead, what should satisfy us is the presence of God. We should find our peace, our hope, and our satisfaction in God and in who He is.

"But reading the Bible, praying, and going to church are some of the ways we experience the presence of God!", you say. And yes, you are so right. But, my question for you (and for myself) is this: is your satisfaction actually coming from communing with God, being in His presence, and spending time with Him? Are you satisfied because of who He is and who you are to Him? Or is it coming from you feeling good about yourself because you "did the right things"? I know I often fall into the latter category, and I bet sometimes you do too.

And that's exactly how we know that we are far too easily pleased.