Another year has passed and what a year this has been! Wow! I know for me and my family we get caught up in the chaos and become consumed with frustration, fear, and weariness. Imagine, we thought the world was moving at light speed before this year! Now it is all we can do to try and wrap our minds around everything; from politics and the economy to something closer to home, jobs and well, homes. If our leaders confess that there is no clear path and consequences to any decision are unclear then we have really entered the great unknown.
It is not knowing that pierces my defenses. Before, I could navigate life whether it was hurricane gusts or calm breezes (there were very few calm breezes!). There was always something to better prepare for what was happening or about to happen. I would research, talk to people, use logic and deduction, and of course persist until a plan would come to me.
This year has taught me something different. This year I experienced the great unknown and it was frustrating. In navigating life I found that when I zigged I should have zagged. When I pulled back I should have pushed forward and so on. As frustrating as it was, I would step back and notice that those around me were experiencing the same thing. Stepping back even further I found everyone around the globe to be in the same soup, from governments to individuals over some aspect of their lives.
Upon acknowledging this, something I have been working on during this year is to not be so concerned about the past or future but only the present. This has been a great challenge. My sense of responsibility, logic, and personal desires are to use my past as experience and the future for goal setting. Year by year with so much focus on those two points of time, I found I have never done the present justice. Every day, quality time spent with my kids, my wife, and even myself was lost with so many distractions. Taking this predicament to the Lord I have found my stumbling block; contentment.
In this society, contentment is not the positive state-of-mind as it once was. Today’s definition of success or the American way of life is not to be content but to keep pursuing something or another. I love Paul’s sentiments in Philippians 4:11-12.
“11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
12 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.”
What strikes me is that Paul emphasizes twice about learning to be content. There is something so subtle about contentment that Paul says there is a secret behind it. I believe Christians miss this secret time and time again and they only have to read the verse following verse 12 to do so. The next verse says, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
Every time I have heard a Christian quote this verse it has been for something entirely different than contentment. If a person was struggling with hunger or want they use this verse in their motivation to remove themselves from the unwanted predicament and telling themselves that they “can” because it is the Lord who gives them strength. If the person had plenty they would quote this verse in their motivation to achieve great things with all that they had telling themselves it is possible because of his strength and blessings already given.
In other words, in all the years in ministry, I have never heard a person utter that they were content and then quote the verse; “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” …not once.
So, what was Paul saying? I believe he was saying that contentment certainly has to be learned, it is not innate and it is not natural to our flesh. The secret is understanding it is God’s strength to help us overcome our flesh and be content in any and every situation. We should not use the verse, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” to get us into or out of our situations of want and plenty, but to use that verse to help us be content in each of those times.
Try being content in this day and age. It goes against our flesh, it goes against our society, and it often goes against the teachings from the pulpit. It truly does require God’s strength.
