Contentment . . . got it? (the solution to not fighting, as referenced in James 4.1-3)

Contentment seems elusive these days.  We live in a world that makes us feel constantly harried, a bit like the woeful creature in the arcade game, ‘Whack-a-mole’.   Sometimes though, we just need to hit the ‘reset’ button. 

“Please, I have to meet with you . . . do you have any time today?” came the desperate message from a high school girl who is a faithful at Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the school, and also Sunday Night Live, the weekly youth gathering I lead. 

I had been hoping and praying she would contact me because word had gotten to me of her not-so-great, and very public decision to drink (and other things), at a recent ‘formal’ high school dance.  Of course, I met her—in fact, I picked her up, and she had only been in my car a couple minutes when she blurted out, ‘I don’t even like who I am anymore; I just follow the crowd.  I obsess about how I look, I am in a bad mood all the time, I am mean to my parents, I don’t talk right, I am making bad decisions . . . and I don’t know what to do!’   I breathed a silent ‘Thank you, God’, for her tender conscience, asked for his wisdom and then asked her, ‘Are you asking for my input?’  This is a course that the Lord delights to correct—getting our eyes off ourselves, and back onto him—yes, off the world, and back onto him. 

The same thing happens to you and me when we do not have right priorities, or when we fail to order our lives by the right ones we say we have!  See, our lives ought be established by two guiding principles: LOVING God and SERVING others.  So simple . . . yet it takes most of us a lifetime to realize these.   They flow directly out of Jesus’ response when asked which was the greatest commandment.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no greater commandment than these.”  Mark 12.30-31   When we are able to live by these—we are God-focused and other-focused, and are naturally less self-absorbed, and more content.   

The dictionary defines contentment as ‘satisfaction’.  But the Greek word used to describe contentment in the Bible doesn’t just mean to be satisfied, or to have sufficient, but to have an attitude that lets us be satisfied with whatever is available.  That would account for Paul’s disposition, and his ability to be content, even when shackled, in pain, and in prison:  “…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”  

Paul passionately pursued God, and lived on purpose; his priorities kept him focused.  When he was physically and mentally tortured, he knew, ‘My God will supply all my needs, according to his riches in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4.13   Paul knew the source of all good things, and trusted him.

Contentment is for the ‘now’.  You see, it is not uncommon for us to think, ‘I’ll be happy when….’  ‘Everything will be better when….’   ‘If only….’    ‘If I could get this….’   ‘or be….’   THEN I’d be happy.  Not so!  Contentment is not found in possessions, accomplishments, or station in life.  Those are ‘icing on the cake’, but certainly not the pathway to inner joy.  Experiencing contentment usually involves good and right thinking, evaluating our purpose, and establishing accompanying priorities, for as Paul later wrote, ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain.’ 1 Timothy 6.6  And let me add one more thing . . . to be complete, to really know contentment, a Christian must find a way to serve. 

‘You may be an ambassador to England or France,
you may like to gamble, you might like to dance, you may be the heavyweight champion of the world, 
you may be a socialite with a long string of pearls . . . but you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed, 
you’re gonna have to serve somebody.’  Can you hear Bob Dylan’s raspy voice in your head?  Bob’s theology was right.

‘Love God?  ‘Endeavoring to follow him?  I do believe that inner contentment and joy are made complete when we take our love for God and give it away, sharing ourselves in a way that serves others.

Ah ... contentment.

Christine