31/08/2026
When I look at how this world has shaped many of us, I notice how early we are taught to chase. We go to school from childhood, some until our twenties or even thirties. Then we are told to build a career, grow a business, earn more, travel more, collect experiences, find a relationship, pursue our passions, make a name, and keep moving because somehow the next achievement might finally make us feel complete. I understand why we do it because I have done it too. There is always another goal, another thing to save for, another milestone that makes us think, “Maybe when I finally reach this, I will feel settled.”
Mga kapatid please do not get me wrong, I am not saying education, ambition, business, travel, hobbies, relationships, money, or personal goals are useless. Scripture never teaches us to become lazy with the life God has given us. Work, provision, learning, and enjoying what God provides are good. I am reflecting on what happens when these things stop being gifts from God and slowly become the reason we think we exist.
Research also helps explain why we can finally get something we deeply wanted and still want something else. A Gallup World Poll study involving more than 1.7 million people found that income and well-being are related, but money does not explain the whole of human satisfaction. Psychology also describes hedonic adaptation, where changes that once felt exciting eventually become normal. The salary, house, trip, or promotion we once longed for can become ordinary, and the heart starts looking again.
That made me think about Solomon and Ecclesiastes because, in many ways, Solomon already lived through the experiment that so many of us are still trying to run. Ecclesiastes 2 describes pleasure, houses, vineyards, silver, gold, entertainment, wisdom, projects, possessions, and almost everything a person could think would make life satisfying. He even said, “whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them” (Ecclesiastes 2:10 KJV). Yet after looking at everything he had built and enjoyed, he said it was “vanity and vexation of spirit” (v. 11).
The Hebrew word often translated “vanity” is hebel, something like v***r or breath, something real yet fleeting. Solomon was not saying every earthly pleasure is evil. Ecclesiastes also tells us to receive work and ordinary joys as gifts from God. But it says, “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver” (Ecclesiastes 5:10 KJV). The problem is asking money to do what money can never do.
And this reaches far beyond money. We can make a god out of almost anything if we expect it to complete us. Some people make a god out of career, others out of relationships, s*xual pleasure, gaming, travel, success, reputation, influence, even ministry. The thing itself may not always be sinful, but once my heart says, “I need this to know who I am, I need this to feel worthy, I need this to feel complete,” then I have started asking something created to carry a weight it was never meant to carry.
That is why Matthew 11:28–29 became more beautiful to me. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Then He continued, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me… and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
For years I heard that mainly as Jesus comforting tired people, and He certainly does comfort the weary, but the passage is deeper than physical exhaustion. In Matthew 11, Jesus had just spoken about people who saw His works and still would not repent, and He had spoken about the Father and the Son. Then He invites people to Himself. He does not tell the weary to find one more achievement, one more experience, or one more religious performance. He says, “Come unto me.”
That is what confronts me. Jesus offers Himself. Coming to Him does not mean we will never work, suffer, grieve, get tired, or face painful seasons again. He tells us to take His yoke and learn from Him. There is still obedience, discipleship, and surrender, but we are no longer trying to build our entire identity, righteousness, purpose, and hope on ourselves.
This made me think of Psalm 42:1–2: “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.” We were created in the image of God, and Colossians 1 tells us all things were created by Christ and for Christ. So why would we expect money, pleasure, success, another person, or another experience to satisfy the deepest part of us in the place of the One who made us?
I also want to be careful here because Scripture does not pretend that sin and worldly pleasure never feel good. Hebrews 11:25 even speaks of “the pleasures of sin for a season.” Sin can be pleasurable for a time. Wealth can make life easier. Travel can be beautiful. Relationships can bring joy. Achievements can be worth celebrating. But temporary pleasure cannot forgive sin, cleanse the conscience, reconcile us to the Father, or give eternal life.
So I am not writing this to tell everyone to stop dreaming, stop studying, stop building, stop traveling, or stop enjoying life. I am writing this because I have to ask myself the same question: what have I been asking to satisfy me that only Jesus can? Have I made my work my identity, money my security, people’s approval my worth, or comfort and achievement the thing I run to first?
When Jesus says, “Come unto me,” He is not adding Himself as one more item beside everything else we chase. He is calling us back to the One everything else was supposed to remain underneath. He is the One who carried our sin to the cross, rose from the grave, and reconciles sinners to God. My career cannot do that. Money cannot do that. A relationship cannot do that.
So yes, work hard, study, build, create, provide for your family, travel if God allows you, and enjoy the gifts He gives you. But let gifts remain gifts. Do not ask them to become your savior, your identity, or your god.
Maybe that is why some of us are exhausted even while accomplishing so much. We have spent years asking temporary things to carry us. Matthew 11 reminds me that Jesus does not call the weary to another chase. He calls us to Himself, to take His yoke, to learn from Him, and to find rest for our souls in the One who made them. Weigh this reflection in Scripture and prayer before our Lord Jesus Christ. May we enjoy the things God gives us without ever letting them take the place that belongs to Christ alone. God bless and take care kapatid.
