Why we can't get no satisfaction

Working at Dairy Queen in high school, I often reflected that food service employees see what is worst in humanity.  On hot days, with lines going well out the door for ice cream, I saw people inflamed into anger over a 6-cent price increase, or a longer wait time, or even a forgotten spoon.  We were trained in the art of "customer satisfaction," to reward immature outbursts with smiles and free coupons.

A few days ago, I saw a commercial in which people around the world purposefully ruined their perfectly working phones in favor of the newest, next best model.

"I'm not satisfied."
"Satisfy me."

These phrases are everywhere, either blatantly spoken or latent within commercial messaging.  This is the cry of our world, and particularly the first worlders among us.  The words embarrass me.  They reveal such selfishness and greed.

I want to say, "Hey first-worlders!" (including me).  "We really don't need anything, okay? And if anything, we need less, not more!"

But I've been realizing the opposite....
         ....First world countries DO have a big, gaping-hole of a need.
         ---And we need not less, but more, to satisfy us.

The truth: this cry, "I am not satisfied," is not merely selfishness.  It is a genuine reality of the human heart, wrongly disguised within our consequent inclinations for ice cream, smart phones, relationships, and fast cars.  We hunger for satisfaction, something to fill a real emptiness, something to make us feel more alive. 

Commercials hit on this real truth - that we are not satisfied.  And in hearing that need identified, we suddenly feel heard, validated.  And before we've had any time to process where this satisfaction may be found, the commercial fills in the blank with the next alluring perfume, technology, or weight loss program.  We go out and buy whatever product most appeals to that emptiness, later to find ourselves before another commercial, still seeking validation - "I am still not satisfied.." the same sentiment that will leave us ready to buy more. We repeat this cycle over and over again because what we are doing is insane - the presented "cure" to our lack of satisfaction is not really the cure.

First-worlders really do need more.  We need more than a new makeup, the best iphone.  We need Jesus Himself. 

"Jesus said to Philip, 'Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?'" John 6:5

"They ate and were satisfied." Matthew 15: 37

"Jesus said to them...'The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' 
 So they said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.'
Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.'" John 6:35

In the Gospel, all ate and were satisfied.  Our highest human destiny is to be satisfied, but satisfied in Christ. 

And surprisingly, the only one in the Gospel who says "I thirst," is Jesus.  Jesus' destiny is to remain in a state of thirst - a thirst to satisfy our hearts.