Contentmentናሙና

True and false contentment

A false sort of contentment is a lazy complacency. No ambition to improve; no appetite for fruitful change. Settle back in our armchairs and wait for heaven. That sort of ‘contentment’ is not the sort being taught in the scriptures.

True contentment can be ambitious for improvement. William Wilberforce was not content with the slave trade. Mother Teresa was not content with urban poverty. None of us need be content with our maturity or love of God and others. True contentment means that while we live for God how and where we are, that we are open to new seasons, new opportunities, new ways to live for Him. True contentment involves openness to change, while at the same time, not succumbing to frantic restlessness. It means we are thankful to God for who we are and what we have, even as we seek to discern the possibility and even desirability of change.

We need to be open to serving God and others right where we are and not assume things must change in order for us to serve. True contentment recognises that the grass is not always greener elsewhere. We are free to consider looking for treasures in different situations, but all the time remembering that the treasure we seek may be buried right beneath our feet where we are. Contentment will have us focus not on our external circumstances but on the presence of God no matter what the circumstances.

Written by DAVID REAY