Learning Contentment

It sometimes seems to me that many people would love to hear about your problems, but few really know what to do with your contentment.

If the substance of most of your conversation is discontent, people feel right at home. They feel good about giving advice and adding you to their prayer list. They are able to fit you into a familiar and often-utilized mental compartment.

Sometimes I sense that my Christian acquaintances only want to get together to "share" their problems. Over time, it gets to seem like Christians, though they may wax joyful about God from time to time, are not particularly satisfied with their lives.

Now, they may have very good reasons not to be. Life is struggle. But how much of our dissatisfaction is really just cultural conditioning? Television, for example, continually reinforces our discontentment with our looks, our smell, our homes, our cars, our sex-appeal, our current tooth-brush, etc.

So I'm just wondering. I'm not suggesting people should walk around in some kind of vacuous bubble. But most of our supposed woes are those that the flesh is heir to, and will be with us until the end. In other words, whatever level of contentment we are able to experience will be experienced in the midst of these woes, not necessarily as a result of their being taken away.

I wonder how we will ever get to the point that Paul had arrived at late in life. Here is Paul, writing to the Philippians, who had sent him a gift during his Roman imprisonment:

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

We like to quote that last bit to one another, but if we believed it we wouldn't be so focused on our troubles. But how do we get to this point? I will note that this was "learned behavior" for Paul. It was not a sudden miraculous download from God, but a discipline that he developed through years incredible hardship. Disciplined Contentment!

But what's the process? How do we "learn" contentment? Well, that passage just quoted is in Philippians 4:10-13. Go back a few verses and you'll see that it is really Paul's summary of the kind of life that results from doing this:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Kind of reminds me of something Jesus said:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Look, I get anxious. I had a day last week, Wednesday . . . well, forget about it. There is often conflict in me, a warring within myself, so that everything I try to build comes out crooked and rickety. But I do think I am learning to be content, little by little. It's amazing, actually, and I thank God, for the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places (Ps. 16:6).