Contentment

https://odb.org/MY/2023/03/20/catching-contentment

Psalm 131 gives us a picture of contentment in the form of a child weaned of his mother’s milk. This means the child has had his heart’s content of his mother’s milk and is now truly satisfied. He is ready for other food. Solid food.

In the spiritual context, Psalm 131 can speak of us having been weaned off spiritual milk and is now ready for the more meaty spiritual stuff. We may need to contend with more difficult questions confronting us or our church or community. Bigger challenges in the spiritual realm. Basically, our spiritual lives are no longer just personal matters. We should start caring for and pray for matters affecting others in general. Health challenges faced by others in our congregation. National issues faced by our country’s leadership. We need to step out of our own private circle and start to pray for bigger matters and issues.

But contentment also speaks of ourselves in our quest for our personal goals and aspirations. Are we happy with what we have? If we want more, does that mean we are not contented? If we are already satisfied, does that mean we are already contented and thus will not strive for more? In order to progress, we need to strive for more, to work harder for the next level, whether in our spiritual lives, in ministry, or our careers.

I think the key to all this is to be contented with what we have and yet want to progress further. We need to continuously improve ourselves, and yet we are contented that if this is the best God has for us, we are happy not to go further. But if God wants us to stretch a bit more, we will nevertheless go ahead and do more. The important thing I believe with contentment is to be happy with what we are and what we have where we are. Be thankful and grateful to God. Sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour. There is no need to keep on striving and keep on accumulating that we forget to enjoy what we have achieved. Be contented. Yet if God calls, we move on again. We do not want to be lazy and just rest on our laurels and not improve ourselves when an opportunity comes. But perhaps contentment means we don’t work so hard looking for that next opportunity!