In this episode of Born to Win, the profound question of satisfaction in life is examined through the wisdom of ancient teachings. Ronald L. Dart delves into the elusive nature of satisfaction and happiness, drawing from the insights of King Solomon as well as personal anecdotes and observations about life. Despite the common belief that material wealth might bring fulfillment, this discussion emphasizes an inner understanding that goes beyond mere possessions. Dart paints a vivid picture of how wealth and the accumulation of things can often lead to more anxiety than joy. Through Solomon’s timeless wisdom, it’s revealed that
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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Are you satisfied with the way your life is working? Chances are you have a mixed answer to that. There are things that are okay and there are things that are not okay. There are things that are working fine and there are probably quite a few things you wish were better. Satisfaction. Are you satisfied is what I’m asking you with the way your life works. But satisfaction is a very elusive quality. The words a lot like happiness. You could almost substitute them. And the pursuit of happiness is something that all of us are freely engaged in. And yet, so much of the time, it eludes us. But they have a great deal to do with – I don’t know if it has as much to do with how your life is actually working as it does with how you feel about how your life is working. And actually, that latter part may be the most important of all. We make an assumption that causes us a great deal of dissatisfaction. We assume that satisfaction comes to us from outside of ourselves. Now, the wisest man who ever lived gave us a clue about this. His name is Solomon. He was a king, and he had bestowed upon him a supernatural gift of wisdom. He was wiser than any man before him or any man was ever going to be after him because God bestowed upon him this great clarity of vision, the ability to experience and understand, and he was good enough and kind enough to sit down and write out for us his thoughts about what makes life work and what doesn’t make life work, what makes things boogie on down the road and what things foul life up and leave you miserable and unhappy. This man, Solomon, made this statement. He said this, “‘He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver.'” Now, that’s curious because normally if you love something, you really love it, and you get it, wouldn’t you be satisfied to get what you love? And yet I know that what he is saying here is true, and I think you probably do too, that the man who loves money is just not going to be satisfied with money. I mean, how much money is enough? You can have money running out of your ears, it seems, and these people who have it are out there busy looking for more. They don’t quit. They don’t go out and live on a Greek island somewhere and paint pictures. They go to work and try to make more money. He that loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loves abundance with increase. This also, he says, is emptiness. Money is a powerful influence in your life. I don’t care how much of it you have. I don’t care how much of it you don’t have. It dominates a big part of your life. I ran into an old friend a few years back at a class reunion, and we were standing around talking about our lives and what was happening and what we were doing. And I knew that he had made a lot of money, and I knew that he had retired. And I figured since he was retired, he probably had some time on his hands. And so I said, friend, what are you doing with your time these days? And he looked at me sober as a judge and says, well, I’m very busy. He said, I manage my money. Money, management, he said, takes a lot of time, you know. And I thought about it and I said, yeah, I suppose it does. I don’t have all that much, but what little I do requires some management. Every once in a while, I’ve got to look at how much is in the bank, and if I’ve got some money invested in an IRA somewhere, I have to think about where it is and what I’ve done with it and whether I need to make a change with it or not. Money, if you’ve got a lot of it, you’ve got to spend a lot of time managing it. And if your wallet is empty, well, you’ve got to spend most of your time trying to fill it up. It can be terrifying to find yourself without any money at all, no cash, and no credit cards, at least no credit cards that anybody will take anymore. It’s terrifying because it translates into no food and no shelter. So really, it isn’t just money, it’s things. Money is a short word for what Solomon called abundance. He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loves abundance with increase. They’re just not going to be satisfied. And it’s odd, but it’s true that filling a need does not leave us satisfied, at least not for long. He went on to say, when goods increase, they are increased that eat them. I guess we all know that. We’ve heard the stories of the lottery winners who suddenly find out they’ve got relatives they didn’t know they had, friends they never had met before, and so on it goes. The more you have, the more there are that eat them. And he said, what good is there to the owners of them, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? And I thought when I read that how true it is. I’ve lived a few years on this planet, and I’ve managed to accumulate some stuff. I have a house, and I’ve got pictures on the wall, and I’ve got clothes hanging in the closet. And I can wander through my house, and I can look at the pictures on the wall, and what good are they to me? Except for the beholding of them with the eyes, I get a little pleasure out of them. But there’s a funny thing about that. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not. But after a while, you wander through your house, and you don’t even see the pictures. You’re not aware of the knick-knacks. They’re just a part of what’s in your background. They become a part of you. Now, you probably would miss them if they weren’t there because you’ve gotten used to them. I’ve even thought about how much time I’ve sometimes spent deciding what color car I want. And then I come to realize that after a while, I don’t even know what color car I have and don’t even care. You get used to it after a week or a month or six months. And it’s just a car. It’s wheels. It gets you where you want to go. And you enjoy it when you think about it. But Oddly enough, so much of the time, we don’t have time to think about it. So what good are all these things that we accumulate to them, except we can look at them and say, isn’t that pretty? Then he says this, and I think this is fascinating. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much. But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. And I suppose that’s true. that the more you have, the more you’ve got to worry about. That if all of a sudden through a tornado coming through your neighborhood and tearing your house down and sweeping everything you have right down to the foundation and carrying it off into the wild blue yonder, you realize how that would simplify your life, assuming you weren’t in the house, of course, and assuming you had insurance to cover your losses, but whatever. The fact is that all of a sudden your life becomes very simple again. It’s all the way back to food and shelter and clothes. The simple life. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much. Now, why is that true? I know it’s true because the laboring man is tired at the end of the day. He worked hard. Your muscles are sore and so forth. You get a little back rub from your wife and hit the sack and go straight to sleep because you’re tired. Sleep’s sweet, sound. But you know, there’s another side to that. The laboring man, carpenter, been out there framing a house all day, when he goes to bed at night, knows that he has actually done something. He actually could have taken a picture and brought it home and showed it to his kids and said, look, this is what Daddy built today. Even a ditch digger, when he gets through, has got a hole in the ground to show for his efforts. He’s actually done something. He’s moved this dirt from here to there. We’re going to lay some pipe in it tomorrow and hook it up to the septic system, and it will carry away the waste from my house. He’s actually done something worthwhile. He’s produced something. Now, here are two great principles for making your life work. Don’t let these get by you. You might even want to write them down. One, there is great pleasure in creative work. And two, there is enormous satisfaction in a completed work. Now, I learned the first of these lessons as a mere boy. I was out playing cars in sand piles. Great fun. Would spend hours building a road system. You know, I had two or three little cars. A friend was out there, and he had his two or three little cars. And we had our little sticks that we used as graders, and we graded roads, and we built embankments. And we were actually engineers engaged in the great process of building highways in a sandbox. Now, I had a lot of frustration, though, in this, because Mother would always call me into supper, or lunch, or what have you, before I was finished. And overnight, the rain would come and wash some of it away, or the next morning, the workmen would be out, and they’d dig up the sand, and all my roads were gone, and I would have to, after they went home, start all over again. But one day… My mother didn’t call me. I made roads and roads and more roads, and I finished making all the roads. Now I was ready to play with my little cars on the road. And I discovered to my surprise that playing with the little cars on the roads was not nearly as much fun as building the roads had been. Now, to my credit, I did not tear up my roads and start over. I was proud of them. I just gathered up my cars and went home. And somehow, playing with cars was never the same after that. I learned a simple little lesson of life. that actually the work, the creative work, and what it was, it was not merely an enjoying of somebody else’s creative work. It was the creation of something with my own hands that gave me the pleasure. The play afterward was not where the pleasure was. The second lesson I learned a bit later, and I learned it in many ways. I learned to take great satisfaction in a completed work. I learned that the bigger and longer the project, the greater the satisfaction was when the thing was over. That I had done something. I had put work into it, and it really meant something. I’ll explain a little more when I come back in just a moment.
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But there’s a strong streak in man that causes us a lot of grief. It’s the streak in us that wants us to acquire things, things that are not going to satisfy us because it isn’t the things that we acquire that give us the feeling of satisfaction. It’s the work that we accomplish. It’s the things that we actually do that help us to become satisfied. It’s hard. It’s really hard to get through our heads that the things in our life come as a byproduct of doing the really satisfying things in life. If the things themselves are the objective that we’re pursuing, happiness, satisfaction will forever escape us. Solomon said, There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owner’s to their own hurt. Now that’s funny, isn’t it? That you could actually have riches come your way and hang on to them and hang on to them to your own hurt. There was an encounter Jesus had with a young man that I think is really interesting in this regard. It’s found in Matthew the 19th chapter and verse 16. Behold, one came and said to him, Good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And Jesus replied, Why are you calling me good? There is none good but one, that is God. But if you will enter into life, keep the commandments. Now, that’s a simple answer. What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Jesus said, keep the commandments. You want to live forever? Live a good, clean life. And he said to him, which ones? And Jesus said, well, don’t murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself, pulling it all in together. What he’s talking about is the Ten Commandments. And the young man said to him, well, I have done these things all my life. What do I lack still? Now, one of the other gospel accounts, when it comes to this place in the account, says this, Jesus looked at that young man and loved him. Now, Jesus obviously loved everybody, but this young man was special. He looked at him, he really cared about him, and then he made a truly devastating statement to the young man. It’s a statement I think that’s troubled a lot of people. He said this, he said, if you will be perfect… Go and sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. And come and follow me. Now Jesus wanted this young man as a member of his entourage. He wanted him to be one of that unique band of brothers. who would carry the gospel into the world, would turn the world upside down, would bring a totally new approach to God, to the Gentiles, to the rest of the world, and to break out and to show the world that this is not merely a Jewish religion, that the eternal, that Jehovah is the God of all the world, not just a part of it. And this young fellow had a chance to get in on the ground floor. Jesus wanted him, wanted him. But the young man had responsibilities. Now let me read you the rest of this little story and then perhaps correct a misconception about it. When the young man heard that saying, you know, go sell it, give it to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. Let’s get completely unencumbered here. When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. Now, I know a lot of people look at that and think what a failure this young man was, but let’s have a little understanding for him. Could we just for a moment? The holding of great possessions includes also enormous responsibilities. Great possessions to people at that time in that place had to include a lot of real estate, cattle, and the like. And if he had great possessions, he had a lot of servants. He may have had family. The truth is that anyone with the kind of wealth this young man had has an enormous responsibility for the lives, the employment, the work of a lot of people. A lot of people depend on him. And when he heard the saying, He just couldn’t shed the responsibility. And in order for him to be of service to Jesus and to travel with Jesus and be on the road with Jesus, he had to be free from that. He could not carry that responsibility, drag it around with him. He had to dispose of it. And he just couldn’t shed the responsibility. It’s important, I think, also to see that Jesus said, don’t give me the money. Don’t go sell what you have and give it to me. Let’s dispose of it. Get rid of it. Give it to the poor. Let’s get it out of the picture here. because I don’t, again, he didn’t want this young man going up and down the road with him, saying, well, I gave Jesus all this money, and here we are, and how’s he spending it, and asking all those little uncomfortable questions. He just said, let’s get unburdened here. And when the young man had gone away, Jesus said to his disciples, I’m going to tell you the truth. A rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now there’s an old saying, you can’t take it with you. And I guess in a way that’s what Solomon and Jesus are saying. You can’t carry wealth, riches, into the kingdom of God. You’re going to go in there bare to the skin. Nothing’s going but you. Not your clothes, not your house, not your possessions. It’s not going to be a question of servants, manservants, maidservants, wives, children, nothing. You bear naked before God. That’s what goes. And so what Jesus is saying and what Solomon is beginning to address in his way, although he did not have nor could he have had the depth that Jesus had, what they’re both trying to help us to understand is that Don’t get so acquisitive in this life. Don’t worry about building up a lot of wealth for yourself, because all you’re going to do is stack it up in a corner, spend the rest of your life worrying about it, and then die, and it’s going to go to somebody else, and you’re not going to have it anyway. Jesus said that all those possessions are a burden and a responsibility, and you just can’t carry them with you up and down the road in doing the work that I’ve got to do. And so Solomon continues his theme by saying this, Behold that which I have seen. It’s really good and proper for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he takes unto the Son all the days of his life which God has given him, for that’s his portion. Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth and has given him the power to eat of it and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. I mean, to be on this earth, to be able to acquire a few things, to have a little income coming in, to have, let’s say, completed some good projects, to be doing a good work and having some satisfaction in your work, and to be able, as a result of your work, to have some things come your way which you are able to turn around and enjoy and share and have a good time with, this is a gift of God, folks, because there are a lot of people out there who, even though they acquire and get rich and are not happy and can’t enjoy it and don’t have the power to eat of it and to really rejoice in their work. There is no satisfaction for them. He said, A man is not going to much remember the days of his life. When it’s all said and done, all the days of his life and all the things that he’s done and all of his great accomplishments are just not going to amount to much. Solomon really wrestled with the question about what was really important in life. What made it work and what didn’t? And it is the question of what is really important that lies at the core of a life that works. Now, he goes on to say this. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun. It’s common to all men. A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that he wants for nothing of all that his soul desires. And yet God does not give him the power to eat of it, but a stranger eats it. This is empty, and it’s a sickness. Yeah, I guess it is. A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, and yet… He does not have the power. What do you mean power? Well, he doesn’t have the ability. He can’t bring himself to enjoy the things that he has. He can’t relax. He does not have the love of a good woman. He does not have the affection and the respect of his children and the family who are around about him. He doesn’t have loyal friends who will share with him in the things that he has without trying to grab them for themselves. He’s a poor guy. I feel sorry for him, Solomon says. In fact, it’s a sickness sometimes that people live with, that they are able to acquire things, but they’re not really able to enjoy them and to have a life that works for them. He continued and said, If a man beget a hundred children and live many years so that the days of his years are long and his soul is not filled with good and that he have no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than he. My, to say that it would have been just as well if you had never been born? To live a long time and beget a hundred children? What’s he talking about? Well, he is saying this, that wealth and longevity, these are two things that preoccupy us in this life. That’s the acquisition of wealth, money, things, and what have you, and living a long time. These are the two things that we worry about, and yet Solomon, in one short paragraph, puts them in their place. He said you can live a long time and you can have a whole bunch of stuff, and your life, well, it really would have been just about as well off if you hadn’t even started it. What he is saying is that there is a sickness in man that causes him to acquire things he never uses and never enjoys. He stacks up money and he won’t spend it on his family, his friends, or his loved ones. He won’t let himself enjoy it. For in the enjoyment of wealth, you know, there is the diminution of wealth. If you spend it, it goes away, and you don’t have it anymore. And so people who sometimes have it are afraid of letting it get away from them. Solomon’s point is, hey folks, it’s going away anyhow. And if you can’t enjoy good in your life and to be honored in your death, well… you might just as well have never lived at all. I’ll let you think about that, and I’ll be back in just a moment.
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and tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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All the labor of a man is for his mouth, said Solomon, and yet the appetite is not filled. So we pursue it, we work hard at it, we drive away, and we’re still not satisfied. For what has the wise more than the fool? And what has the poor that knows to walk before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wondering of the desire. What Solomon is trying to tell us is that we all need, from time to time, a little dose of reality. What’s really here? No, no, not what do you wish were here. What do you hope will be here? But what’s here right now? So seeing that there are many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? I mean, there are so many things that just run into so much emptiness. What is there that actually makes things better, that makes things work? For who knows what is good for a man in this life? All the days of his vain life that he spends like a shadow. For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun? Well, go ahead. Try to tell him what’s going to be after him. In fact, try to get somebody to consider the fact that there is an after him, if you know what I mean. The first challenge is to get a man to believe that there is a time that will be, quote, after him. For we generally tend to think, I think, that the world will end when we do. But it won’t. The sun will come up and shine in a world where you and I are missing. Birds will sing, even though you and I are not there to hear them. The mockingbird in the tree behind my house will be out there and he will sing his heart out as always, whether I am there or whether I am not. So you’ve got two things to think about. You have a life here and now that can work for you or that can unravel and leave you miserable. You have a life after this life to think about. And how you live this one has something to do with how that next one’s going to go. Solomon knows this, but he’s not entirely sure what to make of it. So he struggles on to understand life and to convey a wisdom about this life that is priceless to you and me. This principle he gives us of satisfaction, that he who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loves abundance with increase, and of the sickness that sits upon someone’s life who spends his whole life acquiring things and never finds a way to enjoy them, this principle is priceless. And these two things I told you, that there’s great pleasure in creative work, and there’s enormous satisfaction in a completed work. These things are the basics of character that make a life work. Because in truth, having a framework in which to make your decisions, knowing the difference between right and wrong, deciding to do things in a way that is consistent with character, brings a life that works and satisfaction to you and regret when you’re gone. so that those people who come to your funeral when it’s all over and say, he was a good guy. I enjoyed him. I’m sorry he’s gone. He helped me in my life. You know, the truth is the Bible is an incredible resource in making your life work. The teachings that show us how to react to situations and how to deal with people, how to think about things and how to respond to life are priceless. Tune in next time and we’ll talk more about what helps make your life work. Until then, this is Ronald Dart reminding you, you were born to win.
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