The Secret to Contentment

By day, I’m a mild-mannered Human Resources professional.   By night …. I’m just tired.  In my HR role I receive numerous emails offering me white papers, studies, free evaluations and lots and lots of attempts to sell me stuff.  I recently received an email from an internationally known HR consulting company with a link to a white paper entitled, “The Hidden Fountain of Youth.”  The lead sentence describing the white paper was:

One study finds those who feel content are 35% less likely to die.

Wow!  Not only is this the Fountain of Youth, the author apparently stumbled on the key to eternal life on earth, at least for a percentage of us.  If you can find contentment you are 35% less likely to die.  I haven’t googled the numbers for verification, but I believe we are all 100% likely to die.  Either this claim involves some very poor writing or the author has made the greatest discovery since sliced bread and, honestly, I’m still not sure why sliced bread was such an amazing discovery – knives have been around for centuries.  Plus, I find joy in tearing off a hunk of bread from a loaf.

Once you get past the shock of this amazing discovery, you find that the author’s claim is that: 1) contentment improves one’s health; and 2) stress can affect one’s health.   I hope he wasn’t paid too much money to arrive at these conclusions.  God has something to say about contentment in His word; Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians:

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.  Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.  Philippians 4:10-13

Paul’s life was full of suffering. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 he tells us: A servant of Christ … in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine l ashes.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.  I have been on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Paul was not boasting, simply sharing his testimony that whatever suffering he experienced was worth it for the surpassing wonder of a relationship with Christ.

Despite all this trauma in his life, Paul is able to write that he found contentment in every situation.  In the Philippians passage, Paul is referring specifically to financial need because he is thanking the church at Philippi for providing assistance to him, but the point holds that he can find contentment regardless of life’s circumstances. In fact, Paul infers that he would have been fine without their gift because of His faith in God’s provision.

In early church times there existed a school of Greek philosophy known as Stoicism, which has enjoyed a bit of a rebirth in our day. One of the primary beliefs of Stoicism is the idea that one can achieve contentment by being self-sufficient.  The four virtues that, if realized in one’s life, provide self-sufficiency were prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.  That doesn’t sound bad on the surface.  But Paul counters this philosophy of one of self-sufficiency with one of Christ-sufficiency.  We can never find contentment (or salvation) from within, but only from outside ourselves in our total dependency on Christ.

I began this post before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic and public events began shutting down and self-quarantining became a thing.  I’m finishing this post on a Sunday when my church did not formally meet but streamed a service online with just a handful of people present. So I didn’t begin this post to say that we can find contentment in the midst of a pandemic panic, but it’s true – we can.  We can find contentment in the face of any challenge, any deprivation, any fear the world presents to us, because our contentment does not come from within.  I would never find contentment if I depended on my mind and heart to provide it.  No matter how much prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance I display I cannot manufacture contentment in every moment of my life, especially the stressful and painful moments.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. John 14:27

This coronavirus strain did not surprise God.  None of our fears or stressors or reactions surprise Him.  He is sovereign.  He is Lord.  He is the source of true peace and contentment.  Turn to Him.  Trust Him.

….. and wash your hands …. a lot …. for at least twenty seconds.