How Are You Feeling?

We were playing a simple word game in class, sort of a Wheel of Fortune/Hangman game.


She knew the answer. She was insistent, indignant, demanding.


She knew the answer and she wildly waved her hand and shouted out,  "I know it...I know it!"

It was not her turn.


She wanted so bad to win.


She sulked in disappointment. She whimpered in discontent. She did not want to abide by the rules.






She lost that round; someone else answered before her. She was now determined to win. She now knew she could not make her own rules.

When her turn came, she answered correctly. She knew the answer and she was playing by the rules.






After her win, her shoulders slumped and she confessed,





"It doesn't feel as good as I thought it would."






(A true story from my summer classroom experiences).






Sometimes people want to make up their own rules in life, bypass what the world says is acceptable. People cheat, they lie, and they butt in line. They take what isn't theirs, they manipulate the system, they over indulge themselves. It's funny how our society works.  We marginalize and institutionalize some and others just get more publicity which feeds are media explosion.  Eventually, it all  catches up,  for we are all mortal. Hopefully,  a chance for redemtion comes their way. 




Others play by the rules. They do everything right. The bank account is in order; the white picket fence has fresh paint; healthy looking, happy people in their SUV’s. They volunteer and donate. The kids are well adjusted, popular in school, yet something just does not satisfy. It just doesn't feel as good as they thought it would. Hopefully, a chance for redemtion comes their way.

I owned a BMW for a little while. Vanity…vanity…The front end was soon wrecked by another driver. It was stolen and taken on a long joy ride by an aquaintenance. The transmission blew up, and then after the fire I had to give it up anyway. It is very evident that God had no part in that decision when I went car shopping that day. Because I am His child though, there was a lesson to be learned. 

God is our creator and wants us to have a close relationship with him, whether we are a rule follower or a rule breaker. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans, “we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Kng Solomon in his writings talks about his own futility in life. This was a man who had everything a person could desire.

"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." (Eccl 2:11).

This anxiousness, this longing will continue in the person who seeks out the instant gratification, the pleasure of the world, and the need to please and compete with others around us. Our expectations will never be completely met and we will possess that unfulfilled and unsatisfactory feeling. Their may be happiness for "a time" but eventually everyone will have to face their eternal destiny.

God wants us always to focus on the eternal, in all the things we do. Colossians 3:23 states “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Also in Ephesians 6:7 Paul writes, “serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.

I challenge you to take on your next competition, your next work project, your next challenge in life with this attitude. Check your motivation. May all you do in this life be for God’s Glory. I am willing to bet, you just might be saying, “Wow, this feels good!”