On Contentment
February 13, 2022
I am not wired for contentment. I have always gauged myself against others who are “more” than me, longing to achieve the greatness they have already attained. We tend to be this way as a society. We look at other people and want what they have. We equate progress and growth with success. Maintaining status is insufficient; losing status, unthinkable. We need more money, better food, more ease, a bigger car, on and on. This idea, this unwillingness to be content has infected all levels of our society.
Churches are not immune to this lack of contentment. We want more members, more tithes, more programs, more evangelism. We know it’s a rat race and not wholly appropriate for congregations to give into this temptation, but what other option do we have? If a church isn’t growing, isn’t it dying? What’s the point of being the church if we aren’t doing new programs or evangelizing to our neighbors?
Perhaps the way we actually think about it is more insidious. Certainly it’s better for a church to evangelize than not to, so more evangelism must be better than less. Doesn’t Paul say he pursues godliness as an athlete pursues the prize, recognizing that only one will win, so you have to out-perform and out-compete everyone else? In that case, contentment is tantamount to giving up.
Alas, contentment isn’t just an issue with secular matters or congregations. We can all lack contentment regarding our spirituality. Perhaps we compare ourselves to someone who says wonderfully spiritual prayers, and we long to have such beautifully spiritual thoughts. Perhaps we want to be more like this strong Christian, that compassionate servant, or the other fiery evangelist. We look at these giants of the faith and long to be their equal. Jealousy creeps in, contentment exits stage left.
This is not a new sentiment; it seems to be the same sentiment of the churches in Galatia. “Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” Apparently they wanted more spirituality. The Spirit got them quite a ways, but not far enough to please them. Paul writes to tell them that all such efforts inevitably fail. They substitute out the work of Jesus, and lose Jesus in the process.
Our society tells us that progress and growth are the hallmarks of success. That simply isn’t true. In Jesus, we don’t measure success like that. For us, it is enough to simply be in Christ. We have the gift of the Spirit, and that is enough. Surely the Spirit will transform us, but the extent of that transformation isn’t how we measure success. Surely we long for transformation, but not at the expense of contentment. Perhaps the way Paul put it is best—godliness with contentment is great gain (1Tim. 6.6, albeit in a quite different context).
—John Coffey
