Always improving; that’s what Americans do. Home Improvement stores cater to our “need” to make endless changes to our houses. We like to customize our stuff, too. “Customizing” is improving with style. But improving and customizing stem from a seeming insatiable desire to do something better. Have you ever caught yourself saying or thinking, “That’s nice, but if I were doing that, I would do it much differently.” Whether it is someone’s home, their car, their written report, or the pastor’s sermon, we find ourselves critiquing the work and offering (if only to ourselves) a better way of doing things. “Yeah, so? What’s your point?” you may ask.
Toward the end of my healthcare career we became obsessed with “customer satisfaction.” What an insatiable monster and moving target that is. Our goal was to always exceed expectations. We learned many things through these efforts, but we also discovered that people have really, really high expectations—that grow with use. Supposedly a reporter once asked John D. Rockefeller, at the time one of the richest men in the world, “How much money is enough?” He replied with a smile, “Just a little more.”
There is nothing wrong with improvement. There is nothing unspiritual about becoming better at something. The process of sanctification itself bears witness to our need for improvement. But there is a darker flip side of which we must be aware. There are so few things that impress us anymore; so few things that (as they are) evoke awe and wonder, or gratefulness. We have high expectations, and expensive tastes. It is difficult for many of us to be appreciative of simple and unsophisticated gifts. I remember working with a Russian carpenter many years ago. He was marveling at some of the tools we were using. He would stop every so often and exclaim, “This is a beautiful tool.” I thought for the longest time that he was using the wrong English word in his attempt to comment on the usefulness of the tool he was using. Only later did I understand that he was truly and deeply impressed by its design and function. To him the tool was beautiful. To me the tool was a tool; no big deal.
How is it that someone can discount a valuable tool as “just a tool?” How is it that someone can despise the value of dependable transportation or a modest home? How can we so easily minimize the value of someone’s work? Why can we be ungracious (so easily) to those who serve us? Wanting “more,” “better,” “newer” may be an indication that we are dissatisfied with what we have. Can we admit that? If so, understand it is really hard to be thankful when one is dissatisfied.
Perhaps one could contend that America is strong and successful because we are never satisfied with the status quo. However laudable that sounds on a national level, that striving may reveal a diminished capacity for contentment individually.
November is a month that we gather for two times of corporate gratefulness: Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving. To do this well, we need to set aside our arrogance, our pride, our striving for excellence (the nice name we give to our discontent), and look at the world around us through new eyes. We need to humble ourselves and see how fortunate we are. The psalmist captures his journey through this process in Psalm 73.
Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Psalm 73:1-5 ESV
In other words, the Psalmist was revealing, “Others have it better than me. I envy them. I really envy them.” The Psalm reveals that he struggled with this envy and discontent until he met with God in the sanctuary (vs. 17). That encounter with God re-calibrated his thinking and broadened his vision. It improved his perspective. Prayer altered a dangerous cascade of events for the Psalmist. You see envy leads to discontentment which can lead to bitterness. Bitterness engenders dissatisfaction with God and a sullen, if not broken, relationship with Him.
But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. . .
When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:16,17, 21-26 ESV
This is the reordering that needs to take place in many of our hearts--for us to go from envy and discontent to thanksgiving and worship. John Piper reminds us that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." The question then is how can God be glorified when we are desperately seeking satisfaction in everything but Him?
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