Question2: "Who will satisfy my desire for happiness?"

            John Mayer is one of the most successful singer-songwriters of my generation, and in one of his songs, he goes through a checklist of things that should be satisfying him: Friends, money, girls, guitars, microphones.  And yet, with all his fortune and fame, he sings in the chorus, "Something's missing and I don't know how to fix it. Something's missing and I don't know what it is at all."

            The Bible tells us that "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money." (Ecclesiastes 5:10).  You'd be hard-pressed to find a more timely statement for our culture and generation.  Verses like this describe exactly what we see people like John Mayer experiencing apart from Christ - a lack of satisfaction. Mayer later sings,

I'm dizzy from the shopping malls,

I searched for joy, but I bought it all.

It doesn't help the hunger pains.

            This sounds more a Chuck Swindoll sermon than a secular song!  But this sentiment didn't originate with Mayer.  It's what Mic Jagger shouted repeatedly in "I can't get no satisfaction." It's the message of Sugarland's "There's gotta be something more than this."  It's the advice Bob Dylan gives a woman who's seeking "Someone who's never weak but always strong... who'll promise never to part, someone who will die for me." To this, Dylan responds, "I'm not the one you want, babe. I'm not the one you need."  So who is "the one?"  Who can meet Jagger's need for satisfaction, address Sugarland's longing for something more, satisfy Mayer's hunger pains? 

            Well, Jesus is the answer, not as some vague generality, but specifically for the universal human need to be happy. Jesus is the one whom David (a man who discovered the answer!) addressed in one of his songs: "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).  Jesus is "the Fountain of Living Water" spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah.  And it's no surprise when Jesus testifies of himself to the woman at the well, "Whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Who wouldn't want this?! Who would dismiss such an offer?! I heard a statement on the radio a couple weeks ago and it's been with me ever since: "The Samaritan woman thought she was standing next to a well, talking to a man, but in reality she was standing next to a hole in the ground talking to The Well.  Oh Jesus, grant that we would drink deeply of YOU today and not give our affections to the things of this world, which can never satisfy."