Some things are more powerful, more alluring than others – especially the peaceful slumber of a baby.  Last night during small group, John Piper was shamelessly beaten by a sleeping baby.

There we were, in the middle of a great lesson on The Pleasures of God, a video series by John Piper, when all of a sudden a certain unnamed grandma immediately left her seat, ran into the kitchen to get her camera, and without shame, remorse, or fatigue, came back to her seat and confidently began filling up her 4gig memory card – she didn’t even ask us to put the video on pause – “who cares!?”, her actions clearly exclaimed – “there is something so pleasurable happening just inches away that I must give it all my attention, all my devotion, all my love – I must enjoy it as fully as I can while I can.” I have to admit – I briefly lost my focus on the bible lesson also.

As grandma was regaining her station without a smidgen of embarrassment, I could not help but give that episode some thought: the irony of a lesson on what is most pleasurable and a peaceful baby trumping the pleasure of a lesson on pleasure. So apropos.

If we are constantly trading up for a better pleasure – and you know that all of us do this all the time, then this ought to awaken us to the fact that there is still something better than the best pleasures that this life can produce:

“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” – Psalm 90:14. “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” – Psalm 63:3.

The best pleasure that a human can own is the satisfaction in his soul over the steadfast love of the Lord. And if John Piper has to get beat out by a sleeping baby, contended in his mothers arms to prove it – then so be it: we were made to seek that which is most pleasurable of all – we prove this by trading one so-so pleasure for a better one. Truly then, the steadfast love of the Lord must be the best of all pleasures that we could pursue. Which is why we pray and plead that our souls would not be shriveled and satisfied with lesser joys.

The next time you trade up for something more pleasurable, know this: you were made to keep trading up until you find that Jesus Christ was what your soul was looking for the whole time. And once you’re satisfied with him, the search is over!