Contentment

 

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs (1 Timothy 6:6-10 ESV).

 

Contentment is much more than settling for the status quo. I’ve included a picture from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The location is Cades Cove, specifically the John Oliver Cabin along the loop through the cove. Obviously it was taken during the recent snowfall in the area. I’ve been to this place many times over the last half century, though never during the snow. It snowed each year we lived in Tennessee, though we were never quite adventuresome enough to make the trip through the mountains. We did have a four wheel drive vehicle, but it seemed a bit out of our comfort to drive through the mountains during these conditions.

 

I’ve included the photo because it seems to call me to some of the attributes of contentment. It is at least a time when you take a deep breath, and absorb the crisp, clean mountain air during such a time. It calls me to think of a time when “ahhhhh” is the correct reaction. However, it is much more than the absence of the chaos and stress of our modern world. Contentment is satisfaction with God’s sufficient provision. When you feel satisfied, you don’t need anything else. You’re gratified with what God has entrusted to you. It is to say without fear of the future or the resentment of others, “I have enough.” That settled sense of adequacy is contentment.

 

It’s like a breath of fresh air to a person suffocating or a cup of cold water to someone in a desert. When you replace covetous thinking with true, biblical contentment, you move from a dry, dead place into a whole, peaceful place. In our reading, we notice that contentment has a partner. Like salt and pepper, like Dallas and Fort Worth, like a husband and wife are meant to be together, contentment’s partner is godliness. We must never be content with who we are, only with what we have. That’s why these two words are such powerful partners. Godliness deals with who you are; contentment deals with what you have. In the pursuit of godliness, God is still forming you into the likeness of His Son. But you can find contentment with what you possess in God. Godliness and contentment add up to great gain.