So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
The
way to contentment is not by fulfilling our ambitions and getting the things we
want. On the whole, that leads only to greater discontent as our ambitions
expand even further beyond our reach. Many very rich people (although not all rich people) have admitted to never being satisified with their welth, always wanting still more.
This is not an idea unique to Christian
teaching: throughout history, philosophers have observed that going without
some of the things we want is an essential part of character development and
contentment.
We
need to learn to value spiritual blessings as well as material possessions. Jeremiah
Burroughs in his excellent book, The Rare
Jewel of Christian Contentment, recommends that Christians should reason
with themselves,Why am I discontent? Am I discontent for lack of what an animal may have,
when I should be content because God ‘has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places’? (See Ephesians 1:3-14.)
I
think it is true of all of us that we tend to forget the greatness of the
mercies that we have and the littleness of the things we lack. Our spiritual
blessings should satisfy us, even if we have not such great material blessings
as other people living and working around us.
While
I am not suggesting that a life of need and poverty is the preferred situation for Christians, we need
to go beyond logic to seek the grace of faith: the heart-assurance that ‘for
those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose’ (Romans 8:28).
In
the passage at the start of today’s Reflection, St Paul was prepared to be ‘content’
with some terrible hardship for the sake of his devotion to the Lord Jesus
Christ!
I
will conclude this short series on contentment tomorrow.
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2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
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