We are in a day and age where we are fighting poverty! Let me explain – families with a minimum of four people are struggling to survive in a four-bedroom flat. Youngsters are finding it really difficult to manage with an old apple I-Phone, as they do not have sufficient money to afford the latest one (thought the difference is just a few thousands). I have come across a few humble people, who are willing to work in the same company for over 3 years, in spite of no assurance of a hike of over a lakh.
THE PARADOX
Humor aside, that’s where we stand today. Once upon a time, in a relationship-oriented world we were looking for ways to communicate with people and therefore we invented the cell phone; today however, the importance has been shifted to the phone we speak on rather than the person we speak to. Again, there was a time when we wanted to click pictures to store memories; today, the shift has been made towards the clarity of the picture instead of the memory of the moment. Some time back we were in a hurry to get to work on time; today, we are more bothered about the car we arrive in and not just the time. Many similar changes have taken place…. Like the shift that has been made from a few intimate real-life friends to a few hundred online-friends. Childhood visits to villages have now been replaced with an artificial journey into a video game. Today, the option is not to simply choose the best but to conquer beyond the best.
The other day I went with a friend of mine to purchase a bicycle for his 14 year old nephew. It came as a shock to us when we were introduced to one, with 24 GEARS. Our single response was apparent in the question - when is he going to use all those gears?? (probably on a voyage). A second shock was reserved for the time the salesman began to talk about additional disc breaks, in the latter part of the introduction. I’m sure you’re not amazed, maybe these incidents are not alien experiences to you. You probably know of somebody whose credit cards out number the number of card slots in their wallet. Yet, the same person is burdened by a huge loan, if not struggling with bad money management skills. Or take Shahrukh Khan for instance. The reason Shahrukh’s smile is back (after a track record of flops) is due to his team, KKR, which managed to knock off the trophy for IPL 5. If you notice, the examples I mentioned above are not of people struggling for the basics, ROTI, KAPADA, MAKAAN. These are people swimming in a pool of luxury, possessing far beyond the basic essentials. Yet they find themselves drowning under pleasure pressure.
PRESSURE PLEASURE
Okay! So here’s the point! This is not an article about some stranger you never met. This is about us – yes, you and me. We are all in this arena of pleasure pressure. The game is on, and we are in the hot seat. The only difference is that we are at different levels. We are constantly juggling, trying to strike a bargain between our convictions and our pleasures. The only problem with this game is that we never seem able to win; somehow satisfaction is never guaranteed. Therefore, we end up switching from pleasure to pressure…. finishing up under a huge pile of pleasure pressure.
PURPOSE
If life is just a game of pleasure pursuit, the end result at best is dissatisfaction, despair, disappointment…. if not outright boredom. WHY?
Because of the creation saga, as recorded in Genesis 1. When God created the universe, he created it with a Purpose (that would suit us) and He saw that it was good and pleasurable. When God created us, he created us too for a Purpose (to be loved by Him, and to reciprocate by loving both Him and others).
So this is the point, and this is what we tend to miss out on, in the game of life –
The Pursuit Of Purpose Gives Us Pleasure;
But The Pursuit Of Pleasure Alone Leaves Us Purposeless And Disoriented.
God doesn’t want to give you just Pleasure – He wants to give you Himself, because He IS Pleasure. However we have made Pleasure our God.
Today if you are after pleasure, there is one message God is communicating to you – you who are the crown of his creation, and it is this: purpose and pleasure are inter locked in Him, and any other pursuit apart from Him will only leave life devastated and eternally empty.