Through the Valley: Five-Day Bible Plan With Pamela JohnsonSample

Day Four: The Fruit of Contentment

From my pocket-sized perspective of life, I wasn't happy. In fact, my unhappiness bordered on grief. This discontent began with a phone call.

On the end of the line was Manuel, announcing he was at the hospital. This Mozambican national, with my American husband, oversaw building cement block homes for the extremely poor. My husband was seriously injured from slipping off his truck. Instantly I knew our life was about to change.

A Leer jet flew in from South Africa whisking us off to the appropriate hospital for a hip replacement. After three weeks of recuperating in Johannesburg, we were airlifted back to our stateside home where my husband entered the hospital with sepsis. His healing was going to take time and I assumed we would return to Africa. But more emergencies awaited us.

My husband and I flew to help my widowed sister after her knee surgery. A few short weeks after we returned, my nephew phoned with the news of her sudden death. At the time of his call, we were with my Dad who was in a hospice. On a second trip to be with my parents during their crisis, we received a devastating phone call from my daughter-in-law.

Our oldest son was in critical condition and life-flighted to another state. On his way to work that day, a truck rocketed through a stop sign and broadsided his vehicle. While surgeons worked on several life-threatening injuries, we drove twenty-two hours straight to be by his side. Several weeks passed while we witnessed God miraculously heal him. The same month our son came home from the hospital, my father passed away. 

During the year, it became more evident we would not return to Africa. A growing grief morphed into my genuine discontent. The people of Mozambique had etched a place in my heart. Why did God allow this? It wasn't long before I started slipping into a miry bog.

Then God steadied me on the solid rock of his Word in Philippians 4:6–7. These verses tie a heart at peace to thankfulness. It is good to see all that God continually gives and not just what he takes away. I can be satisfied for the years God allowed me to serve and not be angry for the years that never came.

Like Job, I can be confident in the most trying circumstances and know God's plans from his perspective have a great purpose for both my life and others. I don't have to have the answers, just trust the one who does.

It wasn't long before God opened another door for ministry in a different country for a different purpose. My contentment was in the same God ordering it all. 

Prayer: Dear Father, thank you for how you form us to be more like Christ in our suffering. May the fruit of contentment nourish us as we wait to see you face-to-face.