Contentment

Earlier this month I was able to take someone on their first tour of our community’s high end subdivision.  There are some mammoth homes there and they responded to what they saw with a great question…”How?”  That’s something we often ask ourselves when we see somebody pull something off we can seemingly only dream of.   How are they able to do it?  We come up with reasons that they are able to pull it off and we are destined to never come close.  Their parents are doctors and lawyers and we come from a long line of failed paint-by-number artists and carnival folk.  Their grandpa and grandma on both sides gave them a sizable inheritance and the only inheritance we’ll receive from our grandparents is a short-fused temper.  They are selfish and we, on the other hand, are so very incredibly charitable.  They got a full ride college scholarship or their parents actually paid for their college, while we will still be paying off our student loan debts when we receive our first Social Security check.  They achieved it by cheating others and doing the wrong things repeatedly, while we always try to do the right thing.  We justify the difference by telling ourselves that they have had an unfair advantage.

 

We go through these justifications to make ourselves feel better.  If we were truly content we wouldn’t need to justify to ourselves why we don’t have a 7,000 square foot house and somebody else does.  Paul is a great example for us as he writes in Philippians Chapter 4 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”  Keep in mind that he wrote this while imprisoned!  Now that’s contentment.           

Let’s change gears now…what about the opposite situation…when we see someone who has virtually nothing?  A few weeks ago I saw a guy who was pushing a shopping cart along Stadium Blvd. and it was obvious that he hadn’t bathed or ran a comb through his hair in a really long time.  To what do we attribute the difference between him and ourselves?  We often think of several character flaws that could have put him in that situation; things like addiction, laziness, or an inability to function in society.  We wonder what went wrong along the way that could’ve led to homelessness and we unfairly put the fault squarely upon him or her without knowing the full story.  We justify the difference by telling ourselves that we are and will never be like them.   

If we are honest with ourselves, we are often discontent when seeing someone who has more and we are bothered, yet content with someone who has virtually nothing. Why is that?  Has our culture prized possessions over people to the point that this is normal?  I know that we are fearful to extend help to the homeless because we don’t know them and they could take advantage of us and possibly harm us.  We don’t want to give them money, because we think they’ll spend it on their addiction.  What they need isn’t more possessions to push around in their cart or a house with a garage to park their new cart in.  What they need is love…the love of Christ.  What we need is contentment…contentment to stop striving for the newest gadget and the biggest house.  Then we can focus all of that energy we previously spent on getting more and more stuff on showing the love of Christ to our fellow man.

Showing mercy to those who’ve been shown no mercy. 

Offering grace to those who’ve been condemned. 

Forgiving others as we have been forgiven.

I hope I never forget the piercing blue eyes of the homeless man pushing a shopping cart through town, who could have just as easily been me.