Contentment

I began a handyman business and bought this 1989 Jeep

Contentment takes on many forms.  After a long hard run, I can feel satisfied that I have spent my physical body and now a rest is deserved.  Finishing an arduous task brings a sense of satisfaction for a job well-done.  Eating a particularly delicious meal fills my belly until I cannot eat another bite and I collapse fully satiated.  

But these types of contentment are all temporary and fleeting.  I will need to run again in order to keep in shape.  Another task is forthcoming and that meal...well...hunger pains remind me that the enjoyment of that meal was just for yesterday.  Is it possible to be content beyond circumstances?  What did the Apostle Paul mean when he wrote, in Philippians 4:11,12, “....for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Most would rather just acquire a virtue such as contentment rather than to have to obtain it by learning.  For Paul’s ‘learning’ came at a great cost.  He mentions a few times how often he was shipwrecked, flogged, imprisoned, starved, beaten, etc.  Was this where he learned contentment?  Surely not?!?!   Can’t we just choose to be content?  Can’t I just decide on my own that I will be content with my pay, my station in life, my slowing mile pace and aging body?  

I can only speak for myself, but if the Apostle Paul is our model, then I propose that contentment can only be realized in the storm and not upon the placid waters of ‘normal’ life.  

At the ripe age of 51, I believe I have been blessed to have learned contentment in the midst or despite my circumstances.  Up to this point I confess that I have lived a very circumstantial life.  My circumstances dictated my emotional and mental state.  So, it seems that after living in Cameroon for 1 1/2 years and coming home to a protracted period of un- and under-employment, God is saying to me, “Enough!”  

Not, “Stop complaining”, but “I have given you enough and I am enough.  Rest your soul in that reality.”  The truth of Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” finally begins to make sense. 

Now, I shall attempt to put this into practice, so ask me how I’m doing in a week.