Content

Be content with what you have but not with who you are. Most of us have that backwards.

Some people struggle with contentment, not because they are incapable of it, but because they have no need for it, like the way you have no need for a cane or a walker in your youth. When you are in the Springtime of your life, everything is bright and new and beautiful and growing. To borrow a line from the 80’s one hit wonder by Timbuk 3, “things are going great, and they’re only getting better…my future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.” There’s nothing wrong with living life like this, but rarely does it last.

Eventually Summer comes, and with it the blazing heat waves of trials and the long droughts of lack. For the first time in life you begin to know pain and disappointment and frustration. No one knows for certain when Summer will come, and for different people it may arrive at different times. Some are born into it, never knowing the gentle beauty of Spring.

If you survive the Summer, you are met with the arrival of Autumn. In some ways, Fall is a welcome relief from the heat and dryness of Summer, but with its cool crispness comes the reality of decay. What we witness in nature — the beauty of leaves changing colors — we begin to see in the people populating our lives. Dark hair develops streaks of gray that begin to climb, creep, and spread like kudzu. We may not notice these changes in others because we are fixated on these changes in our own mirrors. In time, the chill of an early Fall will give way to Winter. George Strait once sang,

“Oh how quick they slip away, here today and gone tomorrow. Love and seasons never stay, bitter winds are sure to follow. Now there's no doubt, it's gonna be cold out tonight.”

Winter has a beauty all its own — dark and silent nights, snow white landscapes — but it also has a cold, bitter, loneliness. Before snow falls, or after it melts, Winter reveals a barren loneliness that leaves the soul sad and somber. Winter nights are long, and in this stage of life, often lonely. Loved ones have gone, children are grown, youth and strength and time have withered and scattered like leaves in the wind. Nothing is left but the dark of night of the soul. In the 16th century, Spanish mystic poet St. John of the Cross, wrote of this end of the winter of life:

On a dark night,

Kindled in love with yearnings–oh, happy chance!–

I went forth without being observed,

My house being now at rest.

In darkness and secure,

By the secret ladder, disguised–oh, happy chance!–

In darkness and in concealment,

My house being now at rest.

In the happy night,

In secret, when none saw me,

Nor I beheld aught,

Without light or guide, save that which burned in my

heart.

This light guided me

More surely than the light of noonday

To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me–

A place where none appeared.

Oh, night that guided me,

Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,

Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,

Lover transformed in the Beloved!

Upon my flowery breast,

Kept wholly for himself alone,

There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,

And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

The breeze blew from the turret

As I parted his locks;

With his gentle hand he wounded my neck

And caused all my senses to be suspended.

I remained, lost in oblivion;

My face I reclined on the Beloved.

All ceased and I abandoned myself,

Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

The greatest teachers of contentment are time, suffering, loss, and lack. If you have suffered, especially if you have suffered for a long time in some way that you lacked the power to relieve, when that suffering subsides you are left with contentment. You may not be living in ecstasy, but at least you aren’t suffering anymore, and that is good enough. If you have lost something that you truly valued, something that can never be replaced, but are left with other things you dearly love, they become priceless to you. When you lack something you desperately need, but find how much you have already, you cling to it with a satisfied tenacity. With the passing of time, you come to realize the value of what you hold in your hand, forgetting what has been left behind, and forsaking what you longed for in the future. In its place is a new found focus on the things that do not change with the seasons of life. Things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Be content with what you have but not with who you are. Most of us have that backwards. Awaiting the reader at the end of Philippians are the keys to contentment: letting go of what is lost, looking forward to what is to come, and learning to live with gratitude and grace in the now.

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Be content with what you have, but not with who you are.