A few years ago, NBA great, LeBron James did an interview with USA Today. Here’s a man who has won multiple NBA titles and MVP awards. He has more endorsement money than any human being can spend in a lifetime. But in this interview, James reveals something Ecclesiastes-like to us:
“What really got to me [when we won the NBA championship] was how short of a time it lasted. The championship lasts (he snaps his fingers) just like that. The confetti rains, you go in the locker room, pop the champagne, you do the media, you have the parade and then it’s over. It’s over. You’re looking around, and everybody’s back to normal. I was like, ‘Wow, that was an unbelievable 48 hours. I want it again.’ It was the best 48 hours of my life, and I needed that again…”
Here’s a man who has devoted his life to basketball honing his skills for the very moment he speaks of when he’s able to pop the champagne corks and declare himself and his team to be the best in the world and what comes of it? “An unbelievable 48 hours” which causes him to say “I want that again…I need that again.”
While James didn’t put these words to it, the sentiment is the same. His NBA titles, MVP awards, and money have yielded nothing; it’s a chasing after the wind. This is the result the philosopher professors confesses to us. All the pleasure, laughter, wine, and recreation of paradise are meaningless; a chasing after the wind. In them cannot be found the good life.
Augustine lived during the 4th and 5th centuries. In his perhaps most famous book, Confessions, he captures this notion well, “You have made us for yourself. Our hearts our restless until they find their rest in you.”
So how are you doing? Do you feel, at times, like the philosophy professor, exploring every avenue possible to find a deep sense of rest? Have you discovered that pleasure, laughter, wine, and attempts to recreate paradise haven’t yielded the results you had hoped for? Maybe it’s time to try something different. You were made for God. Your heart will be restless until it finds its rest in God alone.
In Psalm 16:11 David says this, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” This is the answer we need.
