When I was a teenager, I got obsessed with a soap opera. It was called General Hospital. Everyone on the show was gorgeous and they all seemed independently wealthy. Everyone had high-powered jobs, but they never seemed to work. And oh, the drama was intense! Despite their beauty and wealth, no one was ever complete. Nothing seemed to be enough. There was always one more love affair, one more lost twin to discover, one more tragedy to occur. I watched General Hospital for three months and by the end of the summer, I had my fill. The drama continued on without me.
There is a portion of the Old Testament that reminds me of a soap opera. It is called the Succession Narrative and it occurs at the end of II Samuel and well into I Kings. It begins with the story of King David, a man who had everything. David was ruler of a united Israel. He was wealthier than any of us can imagine. He had multiple wives, tons of servants and everything a man could want to eat. He clearly had enough, but somehow his appetite was not yet satiated.
David was walking on his rooftop in the late afternoon to escape the heat of the day. Because he was king, his rooftop was the highest. He could look down upon the city of Jerusalem and view his kingdom. That afternoon, he saw someone bathing. Her name was Bathsheeba and she was beautiful. And David wanted her. Despite the fact that he had everything a man could want, he felt that it was not enough. He must have HER. And so David took her into his bed. She was a married woman.
David’s sin begins to snowball, as sin often does. Bathsheeba becomes pregnant. David invites her husband home from battle and assumes that he will sleep with his wife, thus covering up David’s indiscretion. But Uriah does not lie with his wife. He is a moral man who cannot enjoy such luxury while his soldiers die in battle.
David tries to get him drunk and still Uriah does not sleep with his wife. So David instructs his general to place Uriah on the front line and then have the soldiers fall back so that he will be killed.
Lust becomes adultery which turns to lies and finally murder. And all of this occurred because David could not say when. He could not say no to his desire.
David's story reminds me of Eve in the Garden of Eden. I can just picture her reaching for the forbidden fruit. She had everything that she could ever need and yet she could not refrain from satiating her every desire. Even the Garden of Eden was not enough for her. She had to take what wasn’t offered and that was her downfall.
I believe that the root of much of our sinfulness lies in our inability to distinguish between our needs and our wants. We must be able to say no to our desires, it is a crucial part of the Christian journey. Not being able to say no to the insatiable needs of the self leads to destruction for all of us.
Everything about American culture tells us that we must have it all. Our consumer-driven economy is dependent on increasing our needs and desires. The advertisements tell us that we must have this product and we must have that product. Our desire seems to be never-ending.
There is now a pile of trash in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas. It is hurting the ocean life, but we are still unable to keep taking what is not ours. Our consumption has not been curbed and our disposal of enormous amounts of trash continues. Eve takes that fruit over and over and over again.
Only Jesus can teach us how to say when. Only Jesus can tell us that it is enough. Listen to his voice. You have everything that you could possibly need. There is so much to be thankful for.
Try walking through Walmart and say to yourself, “I have everything that I need.” You have been given everything, everything. Let us say ENOUGH and give thanks.
