“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” Phil. 4:4
It’s hard to do things at a slow pace. It’s hard to be still. It’s hard to watch people around you fly by in what looks like success and achievement, leaving you in a cloud of dust that feels a lot like failure.
Why? Why is that the case?
My introduction to this, and really a lot of what I have to say about this will stem from my current season of life. Right now, things are pretty slow for me. On the outside I think it would look pretty ideal – I’ve got a stable job, an excellent church, I lead a d-group at my church, honestly, it is pretty ideal. That’s probably the case for most people that are feeling a bit “left-in-the-dust-ish”. If you wrote it out, your circumstances would not seem as dreary as you have them in your mind. And that’s where that lovely C-word enters: Contentment. Why do I feel so lost if in reality, I’ve got more blessings than I deserve sitting right in front of me? It’s because most of the time I put my worth and my identity into those things, and as good as they are, they’re just going to fail me every single time. And I feel the weight of that when I go home tired and drained because my job didn’t satisfy me like I wanted it to, or when my friends didn’t meet the expectations that I put on them, or when my d-group isn’t flourishing, making me look like the best leader ever.
You see? It has a root, and the root is my discontent. My lack of awe in a God who has so clearly blessed me. Even if I had much, much less, I could still find contentment. Honestly, it might a bit easier if I had less.
“Godliness with contentment is great gain” 1 Timothy 6:6. I think it can go without saying that the “gain” Paul is talking about here probably looks nothing like what our world says is “gain”. And more often than not, the “gain” I seek is that of the world. Through my business I am able to feel accomplished, worthy, successful, needed, praised, and clothed in achievement. But as Paul follows in 1 Timothy 6:7, “we brought nothing into the world, we cannot take anything out of the world.”
That award I got? It will fade. The approval I got from my boss? It’ll fade too. The fame I seek? It won’t last. Nothing will last. All of this stuff that we let infiltrate into every part of our being is mist, here a moment and gone the next. And when it’s gone, it leaves us far emptier than we were before.
What will never fade, what has always and forever will be, is God. His promises are true and everlasting and through Jesus’ death on the cross, sinner’s like us are able to take part in them. The awards don’t matter, the fame doesn’t matter, the approval doesn’t matter. What does matter is a repentant heart, and humble spirit before the Lord. “For by grace I have been saved.” Resting and finding contentment in that, will ease my restless heart and encourage action that is simply for the glory of God.
I started writing this post from almost a feeling of loneliness as well. I have a lot of down time sitting at my desk, which means I can get in my head a lot throughout the day. I wanted to touch on this because it’s really not a fun feeling, or a fun way to spend the day. You see, when I’m busy, time flies and I don’t really have time to think about what my future looks like or what I actually want to do with my life. But on the slow days when I can dwell on that endlessly, well, it usually always ends in tears. What do we do with these feelings? They’re so real, and in those moments of self-doubt and anxiety-inducing thoughts about the future, I feel absolutely helpless. Yes, even in the midst of such wonderful life circumstances that I listed out earlier, Satan can so quickly ensnare our thoughts and lead us astray rather than being drawn to the Giver of Life.
Even in these moments, I am crippled by my lack of contentment. There are other sinful attributes that reveal how hopeless I am in my flesh, but God has so lovingly revealed his promises to us in scripture. His promise to take care of us, uphold us, teach us, sanctify us, and save us. Let’s pause – if you feel so hopeless, so left behind, so overwhelmed, stop for a second and remind yourself that Jesus died on the cross for your sins so that you might spend eternal life in Heaven. If that is the only good thing about your life that you can muster up, it is so incredibly sufficient.
“For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Paul had to learn how to be content, and in that he learned the “secret” to facing plenty, hunger, abundance, and need. It’s the secret sauce to any and every life circumstance, both good and bad. It’s finding joy in the sorrow, humility in the success, and thanksgiving even in the most thankless of seasons. May whatever season you’re in be characterized by contentment. Deep, soul-enriching contentment that can only come from our Almighty God.
We can always rejoice in him. “Again I will say, rejoice.”
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