I Am Satisfied

I can remember a favorite game I used to play with my sister and cousin when we were kids and ate at restaurants together on Sundays. We would look for comment cards or surveys to fill out, rating the quality of service… you know, excellent/ good/ satisfactory/ poor/ very poor. Now I was quite the devious child and convinced my sister and cousin that if we rated the restaurant at satisfactory or below, and then added in the comment section, "all kids meals should come with a free cookie" then next time they would add a cookie to our meal to appease us. Obviously.
Well I can't say we revolutionized any kids menus, but the experience left this idea imprinted on my young mind: satisfied means "room for improvement."
...

Zambians love this phrase. It's the kind of thing you say when someone feeds you a wonderful meal and you can't hold another bite. I am satisfied. It perplexed me for the longest time! Isn't that an insult to the cook? "Satisfied"? A 3 out of 5?
But as I've come to find out, the way Zambians understand satisfaction is much more on target with the Biblical concept of satisfaction:
Filled to the brim.
Having abundance.
Replenished.
Lacking nothing.
The Bible never uses the word "satisfied" to express mediocrity-- a 3 on the Likert scale or something middle-of-the-road.

"For he SATISFIES the longing soul, and the hungry soul he FILLS with good things." (Psalm 107:9)
This promise is pretty dull and lifeless if we understand satisfaction to be merely a contented step up from "poor." Good enough, but with room for improvement. 
Here I have truly begun to see how perfectly, abundantly satisfying he is. Only by being so emptied of the things I once prized have I seen the capacity of His Spirit to fill and satisfy every part of my life. 
"I am satisfied."