Redefining Contentment - Ben

Paul told a young pastor, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” This is remarkable especially when one considers that Paul also admitted to being whipped five times, beaten with rods three times, stoned, shipwrecked, cast adrift at sea, in constant dangers from foreign and domestic threats, he was cold, hungry, thirsty, and spent many a sleepless night tossing and turning in his bed as he worried over the state of the church (cf. 2 Cor. 11:24-28). Maybe when Paul used the word “contentment,” he meant something else. Sorta like when my son head-butts me in the breadbasket and my wife asks, “You okay?” To which I reply sarcastically, “I’m greeeeeeat.” I am not great. I’ve just been billy-goated by 23lbs of unbridled kinetic energy. In fact, I’m so “ungreat” that I may need to go to the emergency room to stop my internal organs from hemorrhaging. 

But Paul wasn’t being sarcastic. He knew how to be content in every situation. Now, lest we feel too badly about ourselves, I’m quick to point out that Paul wasn’t born with this trait. No. As Ron so eloquently laid out in his post, contentment was something that Paul had to learn (cf. Phil 4:11-13). And if he could learn how to be content, so can we.

The key to learning contentment lies in the very situations where we find contentment allude us. You see, Paul showed us that the measure of one’s contentment is discovered in times of catastrophe rather than in times of serenity. Meaning, you must be brought to the end of your contentment before you can ever grow your contentment.

We’ve all been brought to the end of ourselves. Such as when a day ended up being too hot or too cold. Or when something you had meticulously planned out went completely haywire. Or when you finally got what you wanted but were shocked when you discovered you still wanted more. Contentment is as much a state-of-mind as it is an end-goal. We must have a mindset that controls our “wanter,” or we’ll allow what we want to govern what we do. We must see what we already have on hand and then choose to say, “I do not need more.” Our capacity to be content grows when our desire for more does not.

Contentment will be outside one’s reach when a person does not find their satisfaction in God alone.  True godliness looks to God to provide. When God inevitably provides, the godly do not need or desire anything more. The gains of such a person will eventually grow to such an extent that if the world itself were offered to them, it would hold no appeal (cf. Mat. 4:9-10). Who could want anything more when God has already filled every desire. Thus, content is the man who finds his fulfillment in God, and discontent is the man who finds his fulfillment apart from God. 

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence, there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

Psalm 16:11