Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
- Philippians 4:11-13
Who or what do we serve? Serve means to perform duties or services for. That's what life is about. We all serve somebody or something. Contentment and a life worth living is found in pursuing the presence of God. But we can slip into a form of idolatry in the name of Christianity all too easily. To be a Christian means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, as in to be one of the ones who picks up a method of execution (i.e. a cross) and kills the self every day in order to follow Jesus.
That's what it's supposed to mean to be a Christian. But sometimes we rewrite the definition. Christianity becomes less about the pursuit of His presence and more about the pursuit of happiness, feeling good and self-fulfillment. And when that happens, Christianity becomes a twisted religion that is not truth, but rather just another form of idolatry and destruction. To pursue God only as an agent for happiness, is to make happiness and feeling good our god.
Serving happiness rather than God, will often put us in the position of trying to use and manipulate God into manufacturing that happiness for us. Maybe we seriously need to think that move through. In what plane of existence could trying to manipulate or use for our own purposes the Most Powerful Being that ever was, is or will be, The Creator Of All, including us, seem like a wise thing to do?
Don't get me wrong. It's not a bad thing to be happy. Happiness is a good thing. But before we start chasing it, let's do two things. First, we need to remember that happiness is a by-product, not the prize. The prize for which we steadfastly run the race is the presence of God. Secondly, we need to make sure we have the right definition of happiness.
We tend to make choices on what will bring the most happiness. We're all basically hedonists at heart, even those with martyr complexes who glory in their misery. But if we define happiness wrong, then the choices we make that should achieve it fail to do so. The right definition of happiness, and any other word or concept for that matter, is God's. And God's idea of happiness is better understood by the word contentment than the modern American term happiness.
To be content and therefore to be able to endure and go through any situation, good and bad is the message of Philippians 4:13. We sometimes quote that verse as if it were a promise that we can defeat any situation not to our liking, but that's not what it's about. We are so locked into self that even Christians all too often fail to topple that idol. It's shocking how whiny we can be when we get caught up in our pity parties. Circumstances and situations get us down and we moan and throw a fit because we don't get our way. Now, it's not good to pretend that we feel good when we don't. There is a time to weep, mourn and groan. And when we do, the Spirit is right there crying with us. But that place of mournful desolation is not a place where we have to dwell as believers. It's a valley we go through, a wasteland we cross. It is not where we are supposed to live. We can be content...a state of peaceful, satisfied joy, even in the worst of times and situations.
How? Like Paul, we have to tap into the source. We can go through any and all things, endure any and all things, including our own versions of the cross, through Christ who strengthens.
It's the Spirit of God that helps us choose love over self, to choose to serve others over serving ourselves. And in love and service to Him, in the path of His will over our will is where we find Him to be the provision for contentment and joy. God has promised to complete His work in our lives, and no matter how bleak life can look, we can trust that it's not the way it always will be.
Sometimes it feels like life is about enduring misery, and that's just how it is and always will be. Not so. There is something better coming. We may or may not experience much of it on this side of eternity, but it's well worth the crud we go through on the way. Seriously, we'll camp out in miserable weather surrounded by crowds of people we don't like to try to get a shot at a good sale, or tickets to Star Wars or great seats for a concert or the perfect hunting spot or fishing hole opening day or whatever you'd endure discomfort to achieve, but we throw a fit over a brief moment of pain and discomfort while waiting for the greatest event we'll ever have the chance to attend? The eternal celebration and joy filled presence of God is the don't miss event of eternity. And compared to eternity, our 80 or so years is less time than one night in the cold in line for the most desired tickets to the most desired event. One key to contentment is to get out of the moment and remember why we're in line in the first place. Yes, it's cold and hard at times, but what waits for us when we finally get to the front of the line is so worth it.
The second key to finding contentment in any and all circumstances is to through away the lie that is all to easy to believe, the one that says that our life is about us. The human experience is designed to be shared. Life is something we share with God and with others. It is not good for man to be alone is about a lot more than just marriage. We are not meant to go through life alone or for our self. And living for and doing things "just for me because I deserve it" is never going to create contentment. It may give brief happiness, but it will never bring joy or satisfaction with life. The Christian life is not one lived for our own convenience but rather in sacrificial service to others. The needs of the other outweigh the needs of the one self, to put a Christian perspective on a great sci-fi quote.. It seems contrary to what makes sense, but we actually will find more satisfaction and joy in service and laying down our will, self and life for others than we ever will in doing what seems or feels best for our own interests.
Today let us trade the pursuit of quickly achieved and even more quickly fading pleasure for the lasting joy to be found in the contentment of life God's way, on His terms, and with His definitions. It's not a fake happiness. It's not tricking yourself into being okay with a miserable life. It's about true joy and contentment making up a spiritual parka, in which we wrap our hearts in the face of very present and freezing winds of pain and need. Contentment designed by God is the greatest covering of any season of every year, and it keeps us warm and safe from exposure during the blizzards of life.
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