“The first rule of success is that there is nothing on the outside that can compensate for a feeling of failure on the inside. External accouterments of success — from armored limousines to an army of personal bodyguards — can never protect you from the din of demons who whisper to you that for all you have achieved you are still a big zero.”  

        That was just one powerful quote from a recent article published in the Huntington Post entitled “Why Powerful Men Can’t Keep Their Pants On.” The Article made an attempt to wrap the mind around the mystery of adulterous human behavior. Why do men like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Tiger Woods trade their reputations as successful and outstanding men for the reputation of an unfaithful and uncommitted failure of a husband? That is, succeeding in business, politics, or professionalism yet failing in the home. Guarding their business yet throwing away the family. If there ever was a badge for failure, harming those whom you should love the most would be it. It is often the case that men and women succeed in their pursuit of the worlds riches, attaining them all and yet are all together unsatisfied, miserable, and discontented. Having achieved family, wealth and prestige and yet still longing for more of what cannot seem to be attained.

        The Bible tells us that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death (Proverbs 14:12).” I love what Augustine had to say about the pursuit of man: “Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee.” Man is restless until he finds his true peace in the God who made him. God is spirit and we are made in His likeness. We too are spiritual and that is where our greatest longing lies; in the spirit. Our hunger for more is a spiritual hunger often unrealized. We are after God and He is after us and we will find no rest until we find ourselves at rest with our Savior: Jesus.

        Stop pursuing the greener grass and start pursuing your God. He satisfies the longing of your soul by freeing you from the longing after things, whatever they may be: reputation, job, money, sex… the list goes on. Your identity will not rest until you find yourself at rest with God. Being identified with Him frees us from needing to be identified with or by anything else. Idols bog us down, making us miserable because they are temporal just like our flesh, but God is eternal as is our spirit and He alone makes our spirit soar with joy and delight and meaning that lives beyond this life into eternity.

        So the reason why so many are unsatisfied with this world is because this world was not created to be our satisfaction. God meant to be Himself, satisfaction for us. God loves you and asks you to turn from living for yourself and to finally and forever find your satisfaction in Him…

 You can access Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s full article from the Huntington Post that I refer to here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shmuley-boteach/dominique-strauss-kahn_b_863357.html