I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

In 1960’s the word “Hippie” was synonymous with a counter-culture revolution instigated by a generation now known as the baby boomers. While the Vietnam war was considered a catalyst for the movement, its deeper roots lied in a middle-class group of teenagers and twenty-somethings who felt alienated from middle-class society.

The hippie’s felt society was dominated by materialism and repression. Not surprisingly, things have a way of repeating themselves. Many of our youth today – influenced by Marxist ideology – think that they are the victims of an oppressive establishment – hence they too rebel and protest whenever they can.

Beyond their own distinctive lifestyle, whereby they constructed a sense of marginality, the hippies experimented with communal or cooperative living arrangements. They are also credited with starting the sexual revolution from which we are still reeling from the consequences.

During this hippie movement, in 1965 to be exact, one of the most famous rock songs of all time, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones was released. Mick Jagger believed it was so popular because it reflected the times. Some have suggested the song might have been better titled, “I Can’t Keep No Satisfaction.” Rebellion, drugs and sex dominated the hippie culture but none of it produced the satisfaction that generation was searching for.

Four years later in 1969, Peggy Lee recorded the song “Is That All There Is?” It was a very unusual song but wildly popular. The woman speaking in the song talks about being taken as a twelve-year-old to the circus that was called “The Greatest Show on Earth,” but as she watched, she said, “I had the feeling that something was missing. I don’t know what, but when it was over I said to myself, ‘Is that all there is to a circus?’”

Later she says that she fell “so very much in love” with the “most wonderful boy in the world.” And then one day he left her, and she thought she’d die. “But I didn’t", she said. And when I didn’t, I said to myself, ‘Is that all there is to love?’” At every turn everything that should have delighted and satisfied her did not—nothing was big enough to fill her expectations or desires. There was always something missing, though she never knew what it was. Everything left her asking, “Is that it?” The lack of any deep or lasting satisfaction drove her to joyless partying.

We can see from Mick Jagger and Peggy Lee’s that the hippie generation was coming up short on the satisfaction scale. Sixty years later, many in the world are still looking for that same satisfaction.

But the world offers no lasting satisfaction. As people gradually discover that everything they thought would be fulfilling, is not, they become less able to look forward to life. They become more numb, jaded, cynical, and full of despair.

The playwright, Henrik Ibsen, is one of the founders of modernism in theatre. Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and the most influential playwright of the 19th century. He offers some profound insight into this human dilemma from his book, The Wild Duck. He said, “If you take away the "life illusion" from an average man, you take away his happiness as well.”

A life illusion is the belief that some object or condition will finally bring you the satisfaction for which you long. But this is an illusion and only an illusion. At some point, reality will destroy it, and nothing destroys an illusion more than achieving your dreams. The most disappointing moment in life is when you have just achieved the ultimate of your dreams and it lets you down. We are left asking, “Is this all there is?”

Each of us has a deep longing in our souls, and we are constantly searching for something to satisfy this thirst. In a sense this is the philosophy of existentialism. Existentialism wants us to enjoy our freedom. It wants us to create a meaningful and purposeful life. It identifies people as having a free will in which they can determine the course of their lives. It emphasizes individual responsibility to create meaning, to determine what is important, valuable, or morally right – but unfortunately it is an attemt to do so apart from any relationship with God. And therein, lies the problem.

I am reminded of the powerful words of the prophet Jeremiah who explains why humans never seem to be able to find something that can quench the deep thirst of their souls – apart from God. He says: “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all (Jer. 2:13).”

God is telling us that He is the source of living water (of purpose and meaning). But like Israel of old, people reject God and seek to build their own cisterns to capture the “water” (the lifestyle) that will satisfy the thirst of their souls. However, it is an effort in futility as all human strategies fail. They are all broken, they can’t hold water (any lasting or eternal meaning or purpose). The cisterns of our own making are cracked and leave us empty.

God invites us to come to the fountain of living water to drink. There is no other truer source of satisfaction than in Jesus himself. Jesus made this clear to the woman he met who had come to draw water from a well in John 4:7-15: 

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”

Jesus was telling the woman that earthly things, like water, could never satisfy her spiritual quest. She needed Living Water – the Spirit of God – which only Jesus could give her.

Webster’s dictionary points out that the meaning of thirst can go beyond one’s need for water. It can mean “to crave vehemently and urgently” for other things like significance and meaning in life.

The Bible has always used water as a metaphor for salvation, meaning and fulfillment. For example: “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money!” (Isaiah 55:1).

As Jesus pointed out, "anyone who drinks the “water” of the world “will be thirsty again” (John 4:13). “But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4:14)

We cannot escape this spiritual hunger. Why? Because “He has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). So, let's not think that this God given homing instinct can be satisfied with the things of this world. This thirst can only be satisfied by Jesus. Instead of searching for satisfaction in the things of the world, choose to follow Jesus, and you will find abundant satisfaction.