Skip to main content

Overwhelmed and Satisfied?



“Overwhelm”, to paraphrase a dictionary, has the connotation of being overcome completely in mind or feeling.  There is a sense of being covered or buried beneath a mass of something.  It encompasses to load or heap with an overpowering or excessive amount of anything.

“Satisfy”, again to paraphrase, is to fulfill the desires, expectations, needs or demands of a person.  It is to give full contentment by sufficient or ample provision.

In excerpts from the song “One Thing Remains” (Kristian Stanfill), we find:

Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me

Because on and on and
On and on it goes
It overwhelms
And satisfies my soul

Is the song writer on track?   Can we be both overwhelmed and satisfied at the same time?  Or, are they mutually exclusive?

Psalm 103 proclaims that:

  1. God is abounding in love (verse 8);
  2. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love (verse 11);
  3. His love is from everlasting to everlasting (verse 17).

With words like abounding, great and everlasting, it appears that God’s love can be overwhelming.

In another Psalm, the writer (Moses) indicates where he believes satisfaction comes from:  “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love.”  (Ps. 90:14). 

Since it appears that God’s love can be both overwhelming and satisfying, then perhaps the song writer is on track after all!

Overwhelmed and satisfied?  Not mutually exclusive but mutually inclusive!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Year Trash or Treasure?

You probably know the old saying:  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.  I am not going to try to prove or disprove it, just look at it from a different angle. Cheryl and I were recently walking on a beach in Florida .  A man was walking along with a bag and was picking up trash and putting it in the bag.  Was he picking up things of value? We also saw a different man walking along the same beach with a metal detector.  He would swing it back and forth and would occasionally stop and dig in the sand.  Was he looking for things of value? Both were intent.  Both were focused.  Both were diligent. I’m guessing that the one picking up trash was not looking for things of value.  I’m also guessing that, by picking up trash, he was valuing the beauty of the beach and didn’t want the trash to mar it.  The one with the metal detector, I’m guessing that he was not looking for metallic items of trash but was looking for...
1 comment
Read more

Don't Get Tripped Up

I do enjoy traveling and I keep an eye out for good prices. I also enjoy looking at trends in travel. For a while, the travel industry focused their advertising on taking those trips that might be on your bucket list.   That faded a bit and I started seeing ads about taking the trip of a lifetime. I guess both those campaigns have been waning since I’ve been seeing information about taking an “epic” trip.   Recently I noticed the phrase “unforgettable trip” in advertising.   More recently, I’ve been seeing promotions about taking “sustainable” trips and even “reconnecting to our roots” trips. As I’ve been pondering these advertising campaigns, I thought I’d consider what their ideas encompass and then look at them from a spiritual perspective: 1.   “ Bucket list trips ” are based on a list of the experiences a person might hope to have before they “kick the bucket” (i.e. die).   While I can certainly come up with a bucket list of trips, I’m thinking a bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Above My Pay Grade!

We like things that we can study, know and understand.  Sometimes we find it difficult to accept that there are things that might be hidden from our knowledge and understanding. The Scriptures indicate that there are some things hidden by design:  “The Lord our God keeps certain things hidden. But he makes other things known to us and to our children forever. He does it so we can obey all the words of this law.”  (Deut 29:29) Some versions of the Bible translate the hidden things as “secret things”.  Regardless, there are things which have been revealed and things which are kept hidden from us and remain secret. We may chafe at having to deal with the fact that some things remain hidden, but that’s often when faith and trust come in.  The Psalmist wrote:   “O Lord , my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”  (Ps 131:1) The Psalmist seem to realize that th...
Post a Comment
Read more