Considered by many to be the greatest Rock and Roll song of all time, The Rolling Stones’ “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” may well serve as the mantra of mankind, sung by everyman since The Fall. Indeed, its roots may go even further. Lucifer, The Bearer of Light, dared to think there was something greater than God, his creator, and that he could obtain it. Like God’s human creations, Lucifer was granted free will in order to experience the greatest love in the universe; oneness with the Creator God. Instead, he chose the fools gold of self satisfaction and therein lies the rub – the Self can never fulfill its designed destiny without union with its Creator. Put simply, self satisfaction is inherently unobtainable. It is a cruel, deceptive illusion. It cannot and does not exist!
Scripture tell us that God has written eternity upon our hearts. Blaize Pascal says that God has created us with a God sized hole in our souls which only He can fill. Henri` Nouwan tells us that the only journey worth making in life is the journey home. Rembrandt majestically portrays Christ’s parable of the return of the prodigal son on canvass. Thomas Merton eloquently illustrates how we must embrace our own inherent poverty in order to avail ourselves of His infinite riches.
The negative connotations commonly associated with the concept of self centeredness; i.e.; egotistical, prideful, miserly, all detract from its real downward spiraling spiritual dynamic. When we make the devolutional shift from God centeredness to self centeredness, we do more than just transpose half full to half empty, we fixate our emptiness by detaching our Self from our life giver center and spin out of orbit like an aimless asteroid lost in the dead space of the False Self. It is a sad self distortion that leaves us, like a fish in the ocean, the last to know we are in water. We are then left to meander in mediocrity and meaninglessness, all the while pretending that is not the case and hoping no one will find out our dreadful wind chasing secret.
To return to the orbit of eternal live, we must literally turn completely around and face God again. This repentance is simply impossible within the capacity of the False Self. We must, by the resubmission of our will to our Creator, humbly ask to be repented or “turned completely around” by the only power able to do so, the source of all power in the universe, indeed, the source of the universe itself, The Creator God. Lucifer, on the plane of existence his Creator allowed him, cannot accept the forgiveness of God. We, by God’s Mercy and Love, can, IF we choose.
You see, my friends, we can after all, Get Some Satisfaction!
… dent den, ta da den; dent den, ta da den …
Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Psalms 23:1-6
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