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As I was preparing this post, formulating my thoughts and trying to decide what to focus on, I found myself overwhelmed by the myriads of bunny trails and sub-topics that one can talk about in relation to contentment: peace, envy, comparison, serving, materialism, thankfulness, the list goes on. I realized that contentment/discontentment is closely tied to so many different areas of spiritual growth. To help mentally narrow down my topic, I decided to look up the definition of the word “contentment.” What I found was that according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, contentment can be an adjective, a verb, and a noun (Lindberg and Stevenson 375-380). Whew! That made me feel justified in being so scatter-brained. However, in all three of these parts of speech, the word “satisfaction” and the theme of acceptance was present.
Today I am going to touch on contentment in relation to the situation God has placed us in right here, right now. The everyday sort of situation, the one you are going to be living in for the foreseeable future. As a stay-at-home mom, I am in a situation that involves a lot of repetitious tasks that are not going to be noticed unless they are not done: lots of laundry (shout-out for cloth diapers), changing those diapers, dishes, wiping away spit-up, and vacuuming just to name a few. It would be easy for me to take this wonderful gift of being a stay-at-home mom and start looking at it as drudgery. All of us can be tempted to be discontented with our present situation whether you are a stay-at-home mom like me or you clock in to work every morning. It is so easy to start looking at other people and the lives they seem to live, and think we would be happier if our life looked more like theirs or just less like the one we have right now.
Let me interject here that it is not always wrong to want change in our circumstances. The brokenness of our world pervades every area of life. If I am sick, is it wrong to want healing so I can go about my daily duties? No. Let’s look at Jesus, our ultimate example. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, in great anguish because He knew what was about to take place, He prayed “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) This is an attitude of asking God to heal our suffering with a heart posture of open hands willing to say that if this is what God has for us, we accept it too. If that attitude is our goal, what perspective shift needs to take place? How can we change the way we look at our current place in life to help our attitude move towards contentment?
To find that out, we need to talk about what discontentment is. Discontentment comes out of an attitude of entitlement. It is when we do not like the situation we are in because we think we deserve something else. It is a heart of not accepting what God has given us or what He is about to give us. This is very different from the attitude of Jesus in the Garden. One of the most blatant examples of discontentment in the Bible is when Satan looked at himself, the most beautiful of angels, and decided it wasn’t enough…he wanted to be like God (Jeremiah 28:13-19). And we know he made his way into the garden of Eden and deceived the first humans on earth (Genesis 3:1-7). In light of the Gospel, we see that what we really deserve apart from God is eternal suffering. As Milton Vincent, in his book A Gospel Primer for Christians says, “When I look at any circumstance that God apportions me, I am first grateful for the wrath I am not receiving in that moment… Second, I am grateful for the blessings that are given to me instead of His wrath.” (Vincent 48) If discontentment is not accepting what God has for us, we know that contentment is gladly receiving everything from His hand as a gracious gift because of the anguish we know would have been ours apart from the love of Christ.
Now that we know these truths, it’s time to just be content, right? Not exactly. Have you ever heard of the verse, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength?” You’ve probably not only heard it, but also seen it on mugs, t-shirts, key chains, and other merch. What many people forget is that this verse is not talking about running 10 miles when I could only run two the day before. It’s in the context of contentment! Philippians 4:11 says, “I am not saying this because I am in need, 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. I can do this through him who gives me strength.” This verse shows us that we cannot simply grit our teeth and will ourselves to be content. It is a conscious decision to obey God’s Word when we are tempted to be discontent but we cannot accomplish this on our own. We need the supernatural strength of the Holy Spirit coupled with our willingness to obey, to help us joyfully accept whatever circumstances God has put us in.
Maybe you’re in a situation where most of the things you do go unnoticed or unappreciated because of the nature of your job or because the people around you don’t care. Maybe you have longed for some dream or aspiration that seems to remain just out of reach around each corner. Maybe your life is simply painfully mundane in light of the Instagram pictures you scroll through. In this context, let us meditate on the words from Timothy 6:6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” The idea here is not that we must get rid of everything except food and clothing, or that anything more than food and clothing is a sin. The point is that we are to be content with the gifts God has already given us and not chase after empty idols (whether material or otherwise) because we can’t take any of it into heaven anyway. And speaking of heaven, that’s what should fill our hearts with a fullness nothing in this world can offer. Because we know that no matter what our life here on earth is like, we are just pilgrims passing through on our way to eternity with our Savior Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). If Adam and Eve giving into discontentment in the Garden of Eden was the most devastating example of discontentment for us, then Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was the most redeeming (Romans 5:17-19). Jesus knew that He was about to hang on the cross in excruciating pain and bear the sins of the world. Yet in perfect submission and acceptance, He took it on because of His great love for us. And praise God, Jesus did not stay on that cross, but He rose from the dead to conquer sin and death, to give us eternal life so that we do not have to frantically try and satisfy ourselves with the emptiness of this life (Matthew 6:19-21). We have a new, better, eternal life to look forward to. One that is fuller than we can ever imagine because we will be spending it with our Savior, Jesus Christ! Amen, sisters!