Learning to be Content
So, I am the kind of person who likes to have everything planned out. I mean everything. I even put "Eat Breakfast" on my Google calender. I take pleasure in setting goals. I cling to my schedule and to-do lists. This summer, I was all over the place. After spring semester, I spent a few weeks back home. It was hard at first living without my normal routine. It always takes awhile to figure out what to do with all that summer free time. Next thing I knew I was setting out for a mission trip! I was in Oklahoma for a few days for training, drove down to Texas for more training, then on to Panama. There, I got to see God do great things on the mission field. Just when I was getting used to the work we were doing down there, the trip ended and my team had to head back to the states. A few days after getting home, I was back up in Gainesville taking summer classes! This summer was filled with many different circumstances.
Two weeks ago, my mom and I took a road trip up to Georgia to visit family. As I was sitting in the basement of my cousins' house, having some alone time, feeling a little out of sorts and insecure, I turned to God's word and he brought me Philippians.
In Philippians 4:12-13 he writes, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength."
If you read through the book of Acts, you'll find that Paul went through quite a bit! He was shipwrecked a few times, beaten with rods, whipped with...whips, and thrown in prison multiple times. That is insane to think about. I certainly have never come close to anything like that. Yet the very words we just read came from this guy. Somehow he found the secret to contentment. He discovered something, someone rather, who he could hold onto in every single situation he found himself in. That someone was Christ.
The last line of verse 13 has been used quite extensively in our culture, particularly in sports. My baseball team in middle school put it on the back of our practice t-shirts. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" In the context however, Paul wasn't just talking about his athletic performance. He was talking about living life in this fallen and broken world. He was talking about finishing the God-given mission to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth! On his missionary journeys, there was only one thing that he held onto, Jesus. He said in Philippians 3, "I count all things as loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him." In 1 Corinthians 2, he said, "I desire to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
This summer, God was teaching me to be content. It is a learning process, but as each new situation comes up, I've discovered that Jesus is always there. He's always giving me the right scripture I need at the right time. He's always listening when I pray.
My good friend, Walker Moore, came up with this equation. Jesus + Nothing = Everything
If we add anything to Jesus, it doesn't work. You can't say, "Well I already have Jesus, but if I just had ____, then I'd be happy."
We can only be content and be truly satisfied in this life by Jesus. The world tries to lure us with all sorts of promises to fill and satisfy, but the thrill of the party lasts only a moment. The sweet car you've worked so hard for breaks down. The girl (or guy) of your dreams turned out to be not as perfect as you thought. When you live for and put all your hope in anything but Jesus, you'll never be content. But when He becomes your everything, like Paul, you'll learn the secret to being content in every circumstance.
-Marc
Two weeks ago, my mom and I took a road trip up to Georgia to visit family. As I was sitting in the basement of my cousins' house, having some alone time, feeling a little out of sorts and insecure, I turned to God's word and he brought me Philippians.
In Philippians 4:12-13 he writes, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength."
If you read through the book of Acts, you'll find that Paul went through quite a bit! He was shipwrecked a few times, beaten with rods, whipped with...whips, and thrown in prison multiple times. That is insane to think about. I certainly have never come close to anything like that. Yet the very words we just read came from this guy. Somehow he found the secret to contentment. He discovered something, someone rather, who he could hold onto in every single situation he found himself in. That someone was Christ.
The last line of verse 13 has been used quite extensively in our culture, particularly in sports. My baseball team in middle school put it on the back of our practice t-shirts. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" In the context however, Paul wasn't just talking about his athletic performance. He was talking about living life in this fallen and broken world. He was talking about finishing the God-given mission to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth! On his missionary journeys, there was only one thing that he held onto, Jesus. He said in Philippians 3, "I count all things as loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him." In 1 Corinthians 2, he said, "I desire to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
This summer, God was teaching me to be content. It is a learning process, but as each new situation comes up, I've discovered that Jesus is always there. He's always giving me the right scripture I need at the right time. He's always listening when I pray.
My good friend, Walker Moore, came up with this equation. Jesus + Nothing = Everything
If we add anything to Jesus, it doesn't work. You can't say, "Well I already have Jesus, but if I just had ____, then I'd be happy."
We can only be content and be truly satisfied in this life by Jesus. The world tries to lure us with all sorts of promises to fill and satisfy, but the thrill of the party lasts only a moment. The sweet car you've worked so hard for breaks down. The girl (or guy) of your dreams turned out to be not as perfect as you thought. When you live for and put all your hope in anything but Jesus, you'll never be content. But when He becomes your everything, like Paul, you'll learn the secret to being content in every circumstance.
-Marc
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