It's that time of year again. The birds are singing. The flowers are blooming. The flies are pestering. Mosquitoes are the worst offenders. I seem to be one of those people whom mosquitoes find to be a delectable entree. This trait is not at all pleasant for me, but it is a marketable feature on the dating scene. "Want to go for a walk on this delightful summer evening? I promise the mosquitoes won't bother you a bit. They will be too busy feasting on my blood." How romantic.
But the mosquitoes aren't the only pests out there. The air is swarming with a plethora of winged beasts scouring the world over with their compound eyes seeking all whom they may devour. Just today I encountered a house fly in the window above the door to my apartment.
I was on my way out to enjoy a leisurely stroll in the summer sun when I heard the tell-tale buzz of an insect trying to fly through glass. You probably know the sound of which I speak. Zzzz......Zz...Zzzzzzzzzz. There is no doubt in my mind that I will encounter this aural oddity numerous times over the next five or six months.
As I said before, the fly was positioned on the window above my door. As a logical, problem-solving human, I would think that once the door was opened, the breeze was felt, and the unmistakable odors of the out-doors was perceived that the fly would quickly find his way to the opening and meet his freedom. As an experienced, pattern-observing human, I know that the chances of that fly dropping down into the doorway were slim to none. The fly is so focused on the image out the window that he cannot fathom another portal through which he might obtain such a dream. He is set and determined to achieve his vision by transport through that window. In the mean time he misses his chance at true freedom as I open the door to head out for my walk.
I don't know about you, but I can be an awful lot like a dumb fly.
We live in a world of counterfeits. Each and every one of us has been loaded up with dreams and desires. In and of themselves these desires are not at all bad. In fact they are meant to be quite good when they drive us to the appropriate source of satisfaction. But we are a microwave people. We want results, and we want them yesterday. When I'm hungry I want food. Even if I know that I have a lavish, three-course meal of all my favorite foods (yes, I only have three favorites...okay, maybe not) waiting for me at home, I still might eat a package of nutter butters, a snickers bar, and a dr. pepper from the vending machine because I am hungry NOW! Do I even think about the fact that this pseudo meal will ruin my appetite for the wonderful feast that awaits me? Maybe. Maybe not. If I were to think about it, I would probably just go for the snickers bar--because I'm not myself when I'm hungry (that's effective advertising right there).
Ultimately the problem is in me. I feel a desire and I see an immediate solution. Tunnel vision takes over. Yes, there might be better solutions, but this one is right in front of me. It looks so good. The job is perfect. My friends will think I'm cool. She is just so gorgeous. My parents will finally approve of me. I'll be able to do whatever I want. All we see is our desires being satisfied, and that is how the car-salesman gets us.
It's a classic bait-and-switch. He tells us everything we want to hear about how this is the car that will solve all our problems. These are the features that will make driving under any conditions seem like a trip to the Bahamas. It's a dream come true. Then, somewhere along the line, you find out that what you actual purchased was a trip to the Bermuda Triangle. We are promised so much, but we slowly find out that we are given very little.
The only reason we focus on and pursue those ideas and dreams and desires is to achieve some form of satisfaction. What we actually achieve is more emptiness. We find ourselves not satisfied, but even more hungry and hurting. But it did feel kinda good at the moment, right? So maybe if I try it again, that will be enough. And so we continue to buzz at the same window over and over, gazing into a dream world that we cannot reach.
But we can. It's not the world we see through the distorted window that we need. The world that we truly desire is found through the open door right next to us. As I said before, our desires and dreams are not bad. They are wired into us so that they will draw us to the true source of satisfaction. Often times finding true satisfaction means setting aside the opportunities for instant gratification so that we can focus and move forward in the path of righteousness that God has set before us; a path that leads to our most complete fulfillment. Sometimes it means laying down our dreams at the feet of God so that he can fill us with his dream.
If, however, we cannot offer our dreams and our desires to God for him to fulfill, if we will not pull our gaze away from the distorted window that never satisfies, we will end up like so many flies before us, a lifeless carapace in a dusty windowsill.
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