Have you ever had something that hits you the wrong way? Unfortunately, we encounter sin daily, but sometimes something will stand out above the ordinary. For me, this has been a commercial from Apple+. The commercial is advertising their platform by cutting in sound bites from several different shows. The sound bite that particularly aggravates me comes from two men sitting at a table. One of the men says, “I think I have everything I ever wanted.” His buddy then replies, “Maybe you didn’t want enough.”
The reason that this rubs me the wrong way is because of the attitudes presented. On the one hand, the first friend has achieved contentment. He is happy with everything he has in his life. On the other hand, his buddy thinks that he is helping. He believes that he is motivating his friend to attempt to achieve more. In reality, the second friend is sowing the seeds of discontentment in his friend. The second attitude is prevalent in our culture, especially Western culture.
- We are not happy with what we have. The attitude of the first friend was refreshing and biblical. Paul says in Philippians 4:11-13 that he has learned contentment in life. By contrast, we want to “keep up with the Joneses,” and we aim to get as much money as possible.
- We are not happy with what others have. The second friend’s underlying message is what makes me the maddest. His response to his content buddy is not encouraging or positive but is an indictment of his attitude. He cannot stand to see his buddy contented. We think that if someone is content they set their sights too low or didn’t have big enough goals.
Ecclesiastes 6:2–4 says, “a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and a severe affliction. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity.”
We are in constant danger of falling into the trap outlined by the preacher. We genuinely lack nothing, but we are not satisfied with good things. Instead of asking the contented whether they wanted enough, we should really think to ourselves, “Maybe I wanted too much.”
Brian Ketchem
