Beauty Queens and World Peace
Maybe you have seen the video clip from a beauty pageant many years ago. One of the contestants was asked a question, and she attempted to cast a vision for better education. Unfortunately, her answer didn’t come across as very educated!
That scene went viral, and many other similar videos have since become memes or fodder for late-night TV and stand-up comedians. Yet, for all the mockery of these pageants, the contestants, and their answers, there is something deeply and uniquely human about when a beauty queen says, “I want to create world peace and solve world hunger.”
How so? Because there is woven inside each of us a desire for something more—a craving to be part of something bigger, greater, and more profound than our mundane day-by-day existence.
There is an “above and more” positioning of human beings in the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2. Adam and Eve were not the highest of the animals. The whole account presents them as being unique, different, and above the rest of the things that God made.
It is just as clear, too, that these two people were made for more than their own existence. They weren’t placed in the garden for self-survival and self-satisfaction. They were immediately given a vision and commission that would take them far beyond the borders of their own needs and concerns.
This hardwiring remains in each of us who are the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, even though it has been corrupted by sin’s blindness, brokenness, and rebellion. It’s why a human being would ever want to climb Everest, traverse the oceans in an all-too-small sailboat, or attempt any feat not yet accomplished by a fellow human.
It’s called transcendence.
To transcend is to be part of something greater. We were created to be part of something so big, so glorious, so far beyond the ordinary that it would totally change the way we approach every ordinary thing in our lives.
You and I were created for more than filling up our schedules with the self-satisfying pursuits of personal pleasure. We were meant to do more than make sure that all of our needs are fulfilled and all our desires are satisfied.
Sure, it’s right for you to care about your health, your job, your house, your investments, your family, and your friends. It would be irresponsible to act as if none of those things mattered. Yet it is a functional human tragedy to live only for those things.
It is a fundamental denial of your humanity to narrow the size of your life to the size of your own existence, because you were created to be an “above and more” being. You were made to be transcendent.
Maybe the beauty contestant isn’t being so silly after all. Maybe in that moment she has gotten something right. Perhaps her desire for transcendence is a more beautiful part of her humanity than her physical beauty will ever be.
Many of us are running.
The race for many is
lifelong,
the ultimate marathon,
the quintessential chase.
We’re propelled by longing,
thrust forward by hope,
pushed by a deep sense of
need.
Many of us are running,
chasing what can’t be
found.
Morning after morning
after morning,
we get up to run and chase
again,
hoping that finally our race will
end.
Many of us are running,
chasing after
some person,
some experience,
some success,
some position,
some location,
some possession,
hoping something
will finally quiet our
longing.
Many of us are running,
chasing after created things,
hoping
that the void within us
will be filled
so we need chase no
more,
so we can finally know
the elusive peace of
satisfaction.
Many of us are running,
chasing after anything
that will fill our
hearts,
not knowing that what
we’re chasing after is
God.
He placed this longing
in our hearts
so we would be drawn to
him.
Many of us are running,
chasing after the
creation,
asking it do in us
what only the Creator can
do,
constantly disappointed,
never satisfied,
heart always hungry,
ready to search
again.
Many are running,
chasing after,
but Jesus came
so that we need run
no more.
He is what our hearts
long for.
He quenches our heart’s
thirst.
He satisfies those growls
of hunger.
Now you can run,
now you can chase
after
the gloriously satisfying
gifts
that he so generously
gives.
No longer desperate:
rich, satisfied
in him.
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” (Isaiah 55:1–2)
A Prayer for Today: God, I recognize that I often run after created things to find satisfaction in life instead of running to you. I regularly ask created things to do for me what only you, the Creator, can do. Please forgive me, and please create in me a heart that consistently runs to you alone for soul-satisfaction. I don’t need to chase any kind of satisfaction-substitute. I need to chase you. Create in me a heart to chase you first and help me to find fulfillment through a relationship with you in ways I never thought possible. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Discussion Prompt for Children
1. What does the word “crave” mean? What do you think it means to be “satisfied”? Are there certain things that help to satisfy cravings for you? What are those things?
2. Why do you think the Bible says that God is the only true source of satisfaction? How can God satisfy you and me as people?
3. Why is satisfaction in God always going to be better than looking for satisfaction in other things?
Reflection Questions
1. If you were to take an honest look and evaluation of your life right now, what are some of the specific things (apart from God) you run to in order to find satisfaction? How do those things point you to the subject of transcendence?
2. How does God offer transcendence and satisfaction in him to the point that nothing else can come close to comparing?
3. When was the last time you paused from the busyness of life and asked God to work in your heart to replace created things with himself, the Creator? Take some time right now to talk with God and ask him to give you a passion for knowing and treasuring him above all else. Ask him to weed out the people, places, or things that function in your life as God-substitutes and ask him to take his rightful place on the throne of your life.