“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” —Ps. 23:1

Quoting this verse to her parents, one young child expressed a perspective many of us miss. She said the verse this way: “The Lord is my Shepherd, what else could I want?” What else indeed! Why, then, are we so prone to embrace that which can never satisfy—cheap idols that divert us away from the pleasures God designed us to enjoy?

A few years ago we did a Disney cruise with my daughter and her family. It was not difficult to understand why these vacations are so popular. They are vigorously promoted with promises to satisfy our longings and release us from boredom and worry. The cruise staff has mastered the art of feeding our appetite for thrills and our lust for pleasure with endless entertainment and activity. Combine this with round-the-clock service and pampering that makes you feel like royalty, and you can understand the attraction. Yet, when it is over, we still feel the emptiness and pangs of longings still unfulfilled.

You see, God made us with a longing for something that promises genuine satisfaction, delight, and pleasure. Yet, we too quickly embrace cheap, imitation offerings of a dessert feast. We drool over a tasty fast food menu with little nutritional value leaving us with the illusion of feeling full when we are actually starving ourselves. God made us in His image to enjoy all the pleasures He could lavish on us. Life with a capital “L” is living in the reality of our deepest longings met in the exhilarating delight of knowing Christ. It is getting it like the child got it who said, “The Lord is my Shepherd, what else could I want?”

GRANDPAUSE: C.S. Lewis said, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.” Our grandchildren are constantly bombarded by messages offering cheap imitations instead of the true pleasures for which God made us. So…

What ideas do you have for helping them see the difference and choosing the best? I’d like to hear what you do to avoid the too-easily-pleased syndrome.