As I read St. Augustine’s Confessions, I noticed a strong recurring theme. In everything that Augustine did or tried, he was accompanied by misery. Even in things that gave him joy, he found a unexplainable bitterness. Augustine’s question for his misery was in fact answered within the very first paragraph of the work. Looking back on his life, Augustine remarks, “You [God] stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Augustine 3). Without a relationship with God, we will never be able to achieve a happy life. The first instance where we see Augustine’s misery is in his account of his childhood. While discussing his time growing up, Augustine says, “Oh God,
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In his quest to “love and be loved in return” he finds that where he thought his happiness would come, only disappointment and bitterness were produced. He says, “I travelled much further away from you into more and more sterile things productive of unhappiness, proud in my self-pity incapable of rest in my exhaustion […] For you were always with me, mercifully punishing me, touching with a bitter taste all my illicit pleasures” (Augustine 25). I have found his sentiments to be overwhelmingly true in my own life. When we seek the affection and approval of people in our lives rather than God’s, we will only be disappointed. Even when affections are returned, people will always fall short of our expectations. The only one who we can fully put our love and trust into without being disappointed is God. That does not necessarily mean that we shouldn’t pursue loving relationships with those around us, but we should simply learn to put our full trust in God’s …show more content…
He moves to a new town, starts a new job, makes a very good friend, along with a multitude of other things. In all of these areas, he finds that he is still miserable. One particularly low moment for Augustine was after the death of his friend. He explains his feelings when he says, “I was in misery, and misery is the state of every soul overcome by friendship with mortal things and lacerated when they are lost” (Augustine 59). In my own life, I have found that any kind of new adventure or new friendship ultimately does not lead me to a satisfied life. Any endeavor that we make which God does not lead us in can never bring us the satisfaction that we are searching for. It is only through satisfaction in Him that we can find happiness in the things that we do in this
In his quest to “love and be loved in return” he finds that where he thought his happiness would come, only disappointment and bitterness were produced. He says, “I travelled much further away from you into more and more sterile things productive of unhappiness, proud in my self-pity incapable of rest in my exhaustion […] For you were always with me, mercifully punishing me, touching with a bitter taste all my illicit pleasures” (Augustine 25). I have found his sentiments to be overwhelmingly true in my own life. When we seek the affection and approval of people in our lives rather than God’s, we will only be disappointed. Even when affections are returned, people will always fall short of our expectations. The only one who we can fully put our love and trust into without being disappointed is God. That does not necessarily mean that we shouldn’t pursue loving relationships with those around us, but we should simply learn to put our full trust in God’s …show more content…
He moves to a new town, starts a new job, makes a very good friend, along with a multitude of other things. In all of these areas, he finds that he is still miserable. One particularly low moment for Augustine was after the death of his friend. He explains his feelings when he says, “I was in misery, and misery is the state of every soul overcome by friendship with mortal things and lacerated when they are lost” (Augustine 59). In my own life, I have found that any kind of new adventure or new friendship ultimately does not lead me to a satisfied life. Any endeavor that we make which God does not lead us in can never bring us the satisfaction that we are searching for. It is only through satisfaction in Him that we can find happiness in the things that we do in this