Satisfied

With long life will I satisfy them and show them my salvation. Ps 91:16

On my desk sits a card with the word "satisfied" on it, with a number of other meaningful items around it. This is my Star Word for the year, which I reflected on in this blog post, although I didn't actually name the word I was reflecting on.

"Satisfied" continues to challenge and confound me as I see it almost every day. What does it mean to be satisfied? What does it mean for something to be sufficient?

For those of you who are familiar with the musical "Hamilton", satisfied may also call to mind a song that is appropriately titled "Satisfied". You can find the complete lyrics here. As Alexander Hamilton, his new bride Eliza, and her beloved sister Angelica celebrate Alexander and Eliza's wedding, each of the three characters reflects on whether or not they are satisfied with how everything has played out.

He is driven by the need to do more, be more, leave more to the world, and it creates the very situation that leads to his death. He is never satisfied. 

However, it's that very same drive that moves our fledgling nation forward. His unwillingness to compromise, to settle for anything less than what he views as the best way forward, causes friction and creates progress. My own takeaway is the show argues that if he had been satisfied, he would have stopped trying so hard, and the future of the United States may have looked quite different--for better and worse--than it does. His dissatisfaction prevented complacency, which in turn promoted growth.

I disagree with this argument that when we are satisfied we become complacent. For one to be truly satisfied, we must seek the satisfaction for all. This is the opposite of complacency.

Can I be satisfied in my own life, faith journey, etc. while also being dissatisfied with the ways in which sin continues to prevent satisfaction for the whole of creation? 

We live in a world where the the disparity between the Haves and Have Nots continues to grow. Where billionaires are championed as some sort of gods who have the divine right to their wealth, while anyone who is hungry, homeless, thirsty, or imprisoned has earned their lot in life. Never mind that Jesus repeatedly teaches his disciples and his broader community that the love of wealth is the cause of broken relationship between the bearer and God, and therefore the bearer and their community. I think there may even be something in scripture about feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and visiting the imprisoned...(see Matthew 25:31-46). 

For my own part, as I continue to reflect on "satisfied" and how God might be inviting me to live into it more fully, I have found that the more I'm satisfied with my own life, the more dissatisfied I am with the world. The more contentment I find in God, the more I desire that for all of God's people.

So while we live in this world of gross wealth and extreme poverty, I'm not sure I will ever be fully satisfied that my work as a child of God is done. I can be satisfied in God, but I cannot be satisfied when our beloved siblings are hungry, homeless, imprisoned, and thirsty.