By Rebecca Cho & Jimmy Diep
At the June 21 Primetime titled “Contentment,” I shared a little bit about some of the heartache and disappointments I’ve been enduring in my career as a journalist in the past year. Only a handful of people know the extent to which my work environment has caused me great anguish and only my sister knows the number of times I’ve come home in a mess of tears and vows to never go back. At the same time, as I searched for another job, all I could see were the crumbling newspapers and freezes in hiring. As I turned to God in prayer in the past year, I have often asked him for strength to endure the day and sometimes angrily questioned Him about His timing and His purpose in this trial. I became obsessed with the idea that if only God provided a better job for me and a nicer boss, I’d be so much happier. I would then be able to turn to God in thankfulness and worship Him. My thought life became consumed by “if only”s.
But in having dinner with two married Living Hope women recently, God reminded me of something I knew in my head, but was not letting into my heart. In a discussion about how marriage brings with it a host of issues and trials that singles don’t think about when they long for it, one of the women said, “No person or circumstance is going to bring us contentment.” Immediately, I felt pierced by the offhand comment. Was I not looking to my career for the contentment I could only find in seeking God? In reflecting on that comment and on my past two years at my job, I realized that God wants me to be content right now—not when I find another job, or make more money, or get married, but right now, no matter the circumstances. And the source for finding that contentment is God. Immediately, what Paul writes in Philippians 4:11-13 came to mind, “…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.” Amen.
(second blog post)
Thoughts on “Contentment,” via email
Jimmy Diep, a Primer who has been coming out to the Westside cell group, had some insightful thoughts about contentment after he attended the Primetime. Thanks for letting us share this here, Jimmy!
When I first got the Primetime evite about "contentment," without having seen the video short, the first thought that came to mind was the idea of the "pilgrim"or "pilgrimage". In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter refers to his readers as "sojourners and exiles (ESV)", "aliens and strangers (NIV)."
And of course, there is Hebrews 11, specifically Hebrews 11:13-16: "These all died in faith, not having recieved the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been speaking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city."
In terms of the Nooma video short by Rob Bell, I think discussions on contentment that center around the father/child relationship give a limited picture of what it means to be "content." We're (the audience) cast as the petulant child who doesn't know the big picture, and the child usually wants something that is denied him/her by the father. The end of the message is that we should be "content" with what is given us, because we don't know what the big picture is, and that we should trust God, who does. End of story. Be content.
But I think the (Biblical) idea of pilgrimage also feeds into the discussion of contentment (and gives it a fuller meaning). What I mean is that built into the idea of pilgrimage is the idea of a "Godly discontent" with things. By what was quoted in Hebrews, the Old Testament pilgrims were not content with what they saw around them as being the ultimate fruition of God's promises to them, so they kept moving, looking forward to a destination. They were not satisfied in their earthly lives because they knew, by faith, of something better coming - and God actually commended them for this.
Now, as believers who have by faith known of the death and resurrection of Christ, we have even a clearer picture of God's fulfullment of his promises, though not final, since that'll happen only when Christ returns and we're resurrected. But we still long for things, we still have some amount yearning that won’t be satisfied, too! So Paul says in Romans 8:22-23, that not only we groan, but creation groans as well, as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:19 that, "if in this life only we have hoped for Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." And also, in the same book where you quoted Paul's statement about contentment, in Philippians 3:7-16 he says that he presses on to that for which everything else compared looks like dung, yet has not attained.
...so this is just a very long-winded way of saying that sometimes the discontent believing folks experience (present company included) - the feeling that things just aren't right on the inside or on the outside - may not be just the complaint of petulant child, but may really be a reminder that the pilgrim has a destination, and that it's definitely not in this earthly realm: "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come" (Hebrews 13:14). And for that, we draw near to God and give thanks.
From Rich Mullins' "Sometimes by Step"
"Sometimes I think of Abraham,
How one star he saw had been lit for me.
He was a stranger in this land;
I am that no less than he..." (emphasis mine)
(Photo: Next Soul Care Location)
