One Simple Aim

Life becomes much more manageable for me when I simplify my priorities.  Over the past few months, I have been finding my way toward one simple aim (really two in one):  To please Him and to find pleasure in Him.  To simplify all of my efforts and pursuits to this is to truly walk a way of peace.  Two of the most basic human motives  are to find pleasure and to please others.  But when I try to please myself with anything that is not eternal, I am disappointed.  When I seek after those things which have the power to destroy life or those things that cannot continually sustain life, I eventually find myself needing repair or wanting more.  It isn't fair to me or to the things (or people) I seek to expect from them something that only God can provide.  The same can be said for that desire to please others.  Surely, I can make people feel good or satisfied on some ultimately superficial level, but I can never give them that which will quench their deepest human thirsts.  The kinds of troubles that result from seeking satisfaction from and for anything but God are manifold.  In short, they will always leave us hallow, wanting, and frustrated.  But when we become single minded in our goal to find pleasure in the reality of our Creator, and when we endeavor to please our maker in every effort, we begin to taste the fruit that was made to satisfy.  To be pleased by God is to find His mercies in all things, but to never forget that they originate in Him.  The beauty of my wife and child are His beauty.  The fill of a feast at mealtime come from His grace and creativity.  The belly laugh among friends comes from His creation in us alone.  We can find all of our pleasure in God.  Likewise we can please Him in all things.  When we serve our neighbor we do it to serve the one God.  When we order and maintain our lives in the most mundane activities, we do so for the love of Christ.  By the very living of life, we choose to honor the giver of every good gift.  There truly is wholeness in simplicity.  To find our pleasure in the Lord and to please Him with every step, is to know the fullness of life.  Indeed, heaven itself will consist of nothing less than finding our ultimate satisfaction in God and giving ourselves back in return.