Contentment is an Acquired Strength

Contentment is not having everything we want. It is knowing all our needs will be provided.

One morning at the Mission.

A knock came at my office door after morning class.

I bid the visitor enter.

He was a man, one of my charges, who had been in the rehab program for a short seven weeks of a one-year commitment program.

“What’s on your mind,” I asked, bidding him to sit down.

He said he wanted to leave the program. He said I would lose too much money if I stayed an entire year. He was an electrician, a good trade to have.

I asked if he would ever have enough money to satisfy his desire for more. I asked from my own experience.

He looked down and gave a slight shake of the head. Then, looking up, he replied, I know how much I will lose in my trade if I stay.

I told him no amount of money would bring him sobriety, neither would it bring him contentment.

He said he didn’t want contentment. He was a go-getter, he said. There was great work available and money to be made. He wanted to get it while the “getting was good.”

I asked how he was going to stay sober. What’s your plan, I asked.

He shook his head, saying he could do it on his own.

After a seventy-minute discussion, the conversation came to an end.

He was leaving. The reason was the oldest and most seductive of reasons, money.

I liked him and saw great potential in his recovery attitude when he first came to the Mission, and I enjoyed working with him.

I lost one, and that always hurt.

He didn’t want contentment. That was the one statement that stayed with me the longest from the meeting.

Contentment is one of the greatest attributes the Lord offers us in this world.

Contentment is also one of the hardest to hold onto without variance.

~~~

Weather dark, thick cloud-covering. Cold, blustery, forbidding. Winter just beginning, I want no more. Time to set my sights on the sunny, tropical south sea islands. It’s not in the cards, however. So, time for an attitude adjustment.

A gloomy, cloudy winter’s day can affect my mood, but it is transitory. It’s like a mist hanging over the joy of the Lord resting underneath. I can sink no lower than the joy of the Lord, the Rock that sustains me. Though, my passing mood may be glum, my attitude still is positive. I’m positive He still Reigns!

Finding contentment that pleases

When contentment is strong

And faith is more than just a song

The words proclaimed

There is no other Name

But Jesus.

~G.W. 

So, from where does contentment come? You and I, like *Paul, must learn it as we mature in faith, whether our attitude on a gloomy day or getting passed over for the desired position. We should ask the same question. What about Christ’s all-sufficiency means He is not enough for me to find contentment in this circumstance? Because He is enough if we will look up and see. Contentment is a rare jewel and a precious thing to glean. The elusive nature of contentment is not new to our age. And contentment in His riches is still gained by remembering that Christ is Lord and nothing else is. What more do we want?

*Philippians 4:11-12

 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who (provides all my needs).

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