contentment

CONTENTMENT IN CHRIST

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It was March 8, 1990, and I was on the tail end of my fourth year of teaching at The Linfield School down in Temecula, CA.

I loved my job, my students, the school. Confidence that I had found my niche in life was growing. On that day the newly appointed Headmaster called me into his office — it was time to discuss contract renewals. He asked me to sit down and then said, “Chuck, I don’t have a position for you next year.”

I thought I misunderstood him so I had him repeat it. He did — then assured me the layoff was not related to performance or commitment. A change in the curriculum dictated the decision.

I sat there stunned, thinking to myself “What about my four years of hard work? My family? Our house?” Little did I know that March 8th was only the beginning of a lengthy series of trials — none of which, by themselves, was devastating, but put together they became a heavy burden; the cumulative weight of these challenges gradually began weighing me down.

By the end of the school year I still had no job prospects, trials and troubles abounded, and I found myself in the faculty parking lot crying out to God, discouraged and confused. Then, from “out of nowhere,” a thought popped into my brain: “How would you be feeling right now if all these problems were solved?”

“Why, I’d feel great!” said I to myself. On the heels of that thought came a familiar verse of scripture: Philippians 4:4,“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

The moment the Lord brought this verse to mind I realized why I was so weighed down and discouraged: I was depending on circumstances for my security, contentment, and joy. When Paul says to “rejoice in the Lord” he means, “Find your assurance and contentment in Jesus.”

Joy is the absence of worry; peace regardless of our circumstances because our confidence is in the Lord who works all things together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28).

Joy and happiness are not the same! “Happiness” comes from the word happenings and is emotions based on circumstances. Happiness therefore is superficial and temporary because circumstances change: Jobs end, health changes, new cars wear out, people disappoint us. Happiness, like joy, is a gift from God. We simply need to know the difference.

Bishop William Quayle (1860 -1925), awake at night because of fruitless worrying, heard God say to him, “Quayle, you go to bed; I’ll sit up the rest of the night.”

God knows what’s been troubling you. Remember: Joy is the absence of worry; peace regardless of our circumstances because our confidence is in Jesus! Take your burden to Him — and leave it there! He IS going to work everything out for your good and His glory!

SPLAT!

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There they were, literally thousands and thousands of grasshoppers swooping right down in front of us! I’ll never forget that day: My brother Dave and I were on a motorcycle ride with beautiful Lake Henshaw off to our right and lofty, wooded Mt. Palomar just beyond the lake.

Seemingly out of nowhere came the locusts, behaving like kamikaze pilots, dive-bombing us. All we could do was keep going and hope to pass through this black cloud of insects. We did — with a plethora of locust-guts on our helmets and shirts to prove the invasion was real!

The fascinating thing to me as I think back to this invasion was how these bugs, whom Solomon tells us “have no king” (i.e. no leader, Proverbs 30:27) flew in perfect unison, making this seemingly perfectly coordinated attack. In fact, I read recently how… “Each individual locust knows its place and is content to do the task for which it was created. Such discipline prevents jockeying over the position that would make the formation of locust swarms impossible” (Table Talk, 10/16/15).

There is a fitting application for us, a lesson to be reminded of from these bugs: God wants us to learn to be content with where He has placed us (in the church and in the world), thereby avoiding envy and jealousy of other people’s station in life.

Since grasshoppers “succeed” because they are happy to be where their Creator has placed them (I don’t speak grasshopper, but they seem happy and content to me!) — and they “have no king” — imagine how much more successful we can be under Christ’s kingship if we are content with where

He has placed us!
Like so many other disciplines in the Christian life, contentment is an acquired skill, an attitude that is nurtured through use!

Even the great apostle Paul had to learn about contentment (Philippians 4:10- 13). Our confidence lies in this fact: God Himself has hand-made each one of us (Psalm 119:73 )! We, therefore, have a purpose; we therefore can expect to be led by our Creator in accomplishing wonderful things with our lives!

BTW: Whenever I mention finding our God-given purpose in life, people always, quite naturally, want to know what that purpose is. If you are asking this question, I recommend you read Rick Warren’s wonderful book “The Purpose Driven Life.”