- The Secret of Being Content
- How to Be Content in All Things
We live in a culture of “more.”
It seems like, no matter what we have, we always want more. Or bigger. Or better. Culture bombards us with the idea that we shouldn’t be satisfied with what we have. TV commercials constantly tell us we need something new or improved. We shouldn’t be content with what we have. They even sell us solutions to problems we didn’t know we had. I never knew I needed whole-body deodorant. Nobody told me. Good thing I watch TV.
Rather than being content, we live in a perpetual state of discontentment. Nothing we have is good enough. Our clothes, our house, our car — never good enough. Whatever we don’t have is what we want, especially if someone else has it.
When I worked in the corporate world, my company wanted everyone to start wearing back supports. I volunteered to get my plant to 100% participation. Had I simply announced the requirement, there would have been severe pushback. Knowing that, I went to two men who did a lot of lifting, and I offered them back supports as a gift because of how hard they worked. They were so thankful.
But then other workers noticed what they were wearing, and a murmur started. Soon, a wave of workers approached me, asking me why I had singled out those two. Why can’t I have one? Do you think they work harder than me? Why can’t I have what they have? After a few days, I announced that they were right and that I would order back supports for everyone. Within a few days, we had 100% participation in wearing back supports. Then, and only then, did we change the plant safety rules to require them.
A few months later, I ran into some friends from other plants who were struggling to get their folks to wear the supports. They asked me how I had gotten it done. I said, “I just told them they had to wear them, and they did what I said. Sorry you don’t have that kind of respect!”
We always want what others have, which makes it even more difficult to be content with what we have.
The Apostle Paul comes along to call us out. He’s writing to the church in Philippi, and he’s just received a gift from them. Here’s his “thank you”:
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. (Philippians 4:10)
Paul tells the Philippians that he’s grateful for their gift, and not just for the gift itself. What really makes him happy is knowing that he was in their thoughts all along and that they wanted to help.
He also wants them to know that his gratitude for the gift doesn’t mean that he had been discontent without the gift.
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. (Philippians 4:11)
There’s the magic word — “content.” Paul says that he’s content no matter his situation. Keep in mind that Paul wrote this letter while he was in jail. He was in prison for telling people about Jesus, yet he’s content.
The word Paul used for content is “autarkes,” which means “self-sufficient.” It was a word used to describe being independent of external circumstances. Paul says he doesn’t need anything more than what he has. He’s fine, no matter what happens around him or to him.
Of course, Paul also knew that he was never truly self-sufficient. He was dependent on God for everything. He was content in all situations, but only because he was “God-sufficient.” He had learned to trust that God to supply everything Paul needed. He has more to say to us:
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. (Philippians 4:12)
Notice that Paul repeats a phrase from verse 11: “I have learned.” Contentment didn’t come naturally to Paul. He had learned it through the circumstances he’d experienced in life. Paul had been wealthy. Before becoming a Christian, he had been a well-known Pharisee. His future was bright. He had plenty.
Then, he met Jesus. And he learned by following Jesus that he could be content in poverty or riches, in hunger or with a full belly. He’d moved from being a well-to-do Jewish religious leader to learning to live on what he could earn as a part-time traveling tentmaker. Paul learned by walking with Christ that things don’t matter. His relationship with Christ and with other believers is what matters. Paul had learned to be content.
Before I go further, I want to verify that contentment doesn’t mean we should be happy when we shouldn’t be. Sometimes, we see wrong and ought to burn with a holy discontent. What bothers God should bother us. There are times when we need to be discontent so we can help make a change.
Here, though, I’m talking about a holy contentment. God is calling us to know how to be on top and to be brought low, how to abound and to have little, all with contentment, knowing that God will provide.
So how do we get there? What can we do to grow like Paul did? What can we do to learn to be content no matter what circumstances we’re in, no matter what life throws at us?
Stay tuned.