About 5 ½ years ago, I moved to Omaha for graduate school. I didn’t know anybody in the city, except the athletes I coached at UNO, so I mostly just stayed in my apartment and read. It was a lonely couple of years, so to boost my happiness, I started collecting Iowa Hawkeye bobbleheads.
In the summer of 2016, I set out on a mission to find an incredibly rare, Iowa Hawkeye bobblehead of Shonn Greene (the greatest Hawkeye running back of all time). For 3 ½ years, I would check eBay, Craigslist, Amazon, etc. regularly to see if one of the 499 Shonn Greene bobbleheads that were made had been listed. Finally, the bobblehead was listed on eBay at a very great price! I bought it immediately and put it on display the second I received it in the mail. I was incredibly happy and proud of this purchase…for about a month. Then, what psychologists call the “hedonic treadmill effect” happened. I got used to the “new thing”, and it became an “old thing” so I decided I needed a newer thing to bring me happiness.
This example shows just how flawed our thinking is when we try to use worldly solutions for spiritual problems. Some people buy things to make themself happy. Some expect their spouse to fulfill every need. Some expect their career to fulfill their sense of identity and purpose. Some turn to drugs to numb the pain of past hurts. Others try to acquire as much wealth as possible to solve many of their problems, only to find that Notorious B.I.G. was right when he said “Mo money, mo problems”. When we seek worldly solutions for spiritual problems, it’s like we are going to the hardware store for milk. Essentially what this means is that, at a certain point we have to stop trying to get something from a particular source that’s incapable of giving it to us.
Only God is capable of fulfilling all our needs. As believers we receive the Spirit of sonship, by which we cry “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). This week take time to listen to the Holy Spirit, and instead of relying on your own strength in troubled times, accept His help to transform your life.
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. -Psalm 42
