"The Weekly Word"

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For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. Philippians 4:11

        Truth be told friends this is one verse I really struggle with. I know on the surface it’s beautiful. I have learned whatever lot I have in life to be content in everything. I have learned to say as Horatio Spafford penned in the hymn in the late nineteenth century when he got to the place on his ship where his family drowned, “it is well, it is well with my soul.” This verse is saying just that, I have learned to be content and be glad in everything. But have I? Well, I’d like to tell you yes. But no, I haven’t. And contentment is not just about possessions, it’s wanting things to be okay, it’s wanting myself to be enough, it’s wanting to make sure to make good decisions.

        And then I see others around me making me feel lonely for the way they may be carrying themselves. And perhaps I know I’m living the way God wants at times, but it still hurts because I know I could so easily melt into ways of living which would please the world and are perfectly acceptable, but which just would not leave me feeling happy in the long run. I can rationalize all that in my mind, but it’s still an extremely difficult concept to live with. The battle for feeling content in everything is an ongoing internal, raging struggle. It happens at any stage, at any age, any place we’re at in life for varied reasons. The names of the struggles are quite different, but they are all very real.

        Paul is saying he has learned to be content at every level, wherever he’s been in life. But I do have to wonder. Has Paul really admitted something here? By using past tense language, i.e., I have learned, as he told us at one point, he, like us, was not content with everything he was enduring.

        Gosh friends, it seems to me this life is a preparation. We are continually striving towards total contentment. But when will that happen? I must believe not until we’re in eternal glory. We’re always going to want something more.

        And yet, there’s that striving part which Paul in my mind is emphasizing to the Philippian Church. He’s telling them in essence that yes, you’ll want everything, You’ll be pressured by others who have things you don’t, but you are content with what you have.

        So, friends, could we heed Paul’s advice just a bit? Can we learn to be a little more content every day with what we have, even if it’s not completely what we want quite yet? Can we live each day a little more faithful, a little more grateful, and a little more joyful for what we have, or don’t have, or the things yet to come! If so, maybe, just maybe, we’ll be more open to God at work in our lives now and as we wait for whatever God will do with us next!

To God be the glory!     Pastor Brandon