Learning to be Content

Of all the things we may be seeking in life, one of the most sought after and least achieved is contentment. It seems that our ability to be content is always one promotion up the ladder, one new car down the road, one new house up the block, a few more pounds off the scale - there always seems to be something just over there, just out of reach. 

And, when we do reach it, we feel that tinge of contentment just for a fleeting moment until we now realize that our thirst for contentment wasn't really quenched, only wetted a bit. The quest begins anew. 

This general feeling of discontentment isn't accidental. There is an entire industry devoted to making and keeping us discontent: Marketing.  Businesses stay in business and build their business by getting in your business through ads, ads, ads...

That new IPhone you got last year was really nice, it really fit the bill - only this new IPhone that's coming out soon...  That new car you bought just a few months back made you feel on top of the world, just the smell alone was intoxicating. But, the new model just came out with that new feature my now last year's model doesn't have - and where did that aroma of new go?  Oh, and that exercise machine you got last year didn't get you ripped, only feeling ripped off. But this new one.....

I would go so far as to say that marketers are agents of Satan in their efforts to tempt us, but they sure give him a run for his money in getting us to fall prey to lust, greed, selfishness and general discontement.  

Contrasted to that urge to splurge and feed our "I want" just a little more is Paul's "I'm Satisfied Manifesto" in Philippians 4:12, "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."

How did he manage it?   What was his secret?  "I can do [with] all things through Christ, who gives me strength [to accept what I have while I have it]" (Phil 4:13).  Paul focused on his gains in Christ instead of his wants in the flesh. Jus' Sayn.