Treasure Hunt

Treasure Hunt

By Grant Gaines

If there was ever a guy who had the means to “buy” satisfaction, it’s Tom Brady. As the quarterback of the New England Patriots, Tom Brady has led his team to five Super Bowl appearances, three Super Bowl victories, multiple NFL records, and is one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the league (Tom earned $27 million last year). Off the field Tom enjoys being married to a super model wife who makes even more money than he does. Everything a guy could want, Tom has.

And yet, in a 2007 60 Minutes interview Brady openly asked the question: “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.”

When asked what the answer was, Brady responded honestly by saying, “I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying to find.”

How is it possible that a guy like Tom Brady, who has every single thing a person could want, still wake up in the morning with an empty feeling inside? We find our answer in Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT) where we learn that, “…[God] has planted eternity in the human heart….”  In other words, God has placed an infinite and eternal longing inside every finite human being.

This infinite longing drives people to despair and desperation as they attempt to find satisfaction in anything less than that which is eternal. People try to find fulfillment in drugs, sex, rock ‘n roll, relationships, alcohol, money, philanthropy, philosophy, sports, food, and the like. But, like Tom Brady, we all run into a problem when we try to fill that infinite void with these finite things – we are left unsatisfied and empty.

So where can we find true satisfaction? Well, we know that God has placed “eternity” in the hearts of men so the answer to this question must be something that is eternal, immortal, and it must be without beginning or end. Can you think of anything that matches those descriptive words? The answer, of course, is God. But God is not just one of many places where you can find satisfaction, He’s the only place where you can find true satisfaction – everything else will leave you longing for more.

King Solomon learned this lesson the hard way. Much like Tom Brady, Solomon had everything a person could ever want – he had the looks, the money, the girls (1,000 of them in fact), and the power. But despite all of this, Solomon wound up empty handed in his pursuit of finding satisfaction apart from God. Solomon records this pursuit for satisfaction in the book of Ecclesiastes in which he opens with this insight, “Everything is meaningless…completely meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, NLT).

You see, Solomon thought that his great influence or money could buy him happiness so he poured his life into this quest. As we read the book of Ecclesiastes, we see that Solomon sought satisfaction through intellect (Ecc. 1:13-18), hedonism (or pleasure seeking (Ecc. 2:1-3)), and money (Ecc. 2:4-11). But at the end of the day, Solomon learned that a life that was lived without the Eternal and True God was meaningless. Thus Solomon concluded at the end of his book, “…Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, ESV).

In other words, after chasing his wildest fantasies with an endless budget, Solomon,  the wisest man to ever live (1 Kings 4:29-34) came to the conclusion that nothing comes close to the satisfaction that is found in chasing the Lord and following His commandments. Does that sound familiar? It should because that’s the same thing that Jesus declared in John 10:10 (ESV) when He stated of His followers, “…I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Abundant and truly satisfying life is found when we run after the Giver of Life (Psalms 36:9) and every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).

Are you seeking satisfaction in your job, in your marriage, in your body, or in anything other than God? If you are, I can promise you right now that you will go to bed tonight with an empty feeling in your stomach just as Tom Brady and King Solomon did because, as Blaise Pascal once said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.”

Won’t you join me today in praying the words of the old hymn:

“Prone to wander Lord I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love.

Take my heart, Lord, take and seal it,

seal it for Thy courts above.[1]”

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©Grant Gaines 2013