Contentment

Sometimes I see life like looking through my window. Beyond it, I can see beautiful things—trees flourishing, birds soaring overhead or singing happily in the trees, the cats and dogs running around in blissful freedom—but I’m behind the glass panes, unable to reach the beauty before me, trapped in a humdrum place dreaming of a day I’ll step beyond the window panes into something greater. With these thoughts, discontentment sets in.

I’ve been pretty discontent for the last couple of years. Life just hasn’t been everything I wanted it to be.

But isn’t that silly?

Life isn’t supposed to be all frolicking and sunshine, how would we get anywhere if it was? How would we learn and grow without those storms life brings? But does that mean life isn’t beautiful?

Gracious no!

What are rainbows without storms?

God has been trying to teach me contentment lately, something I have fallen so very short on.

I love those WHOA moments in life. Those moments when we discover something we’ve always known, we’ve heard over and over again, but never really thought about it. Then one day the Lord brings it to our minds and all we can think is, “WHOA.” Fairly recently I’ve been having quite a few of those moments as the Lord shows me why I should never, ever be discontent.

I have learned much about why we should be content with where we are in life, but the greatest one is this:

“For the Father Himself loveth you…” John 16:27

Wait a minute. The very Creator of the Universe, the One Who has been since forever, the almighty, all powerful Being loves…me?

Yes!

God loves you.

Of course we all know this. It is one of those things we hear over and over again. I knew that, but when I think about it at a more deeper level, I realize how amazing it really is.

The One Who makes the very Earth go round LOVES me, wholly and unconditionally and for all of eternity.

And yet I’ve been discontent? How is it even possible to be discontent with this knowledge?

Now then, doesn’t someone who loves us THAT deeply want the best for us?

Absolutely!

We were not put behind a window, watching the world go by and dreaming of the “then’s” of life. The many years away when “things will be better.” How many times do we tell ourselves this? I probably do it about 5 times daily. “Things will be better.” “Life will be much more exciting in a year or two I’m sure.” “I bet in a few years things will be great!” I spend so much time thinking about the “then” I’m not focusing on the “now”.

God has not placed us where we are to look out through those window panes, wishing for better. There ARE NO window panes. There is not glass blocking us from the good things in life.

We have it right here.

I dream of huge things like traveling to other countries and spreading God’s word or opening a home for teenage girls in need or becoming a best-selling Christian author, then I pull myself away from these dreams and look at the chores that need tending to and go “WHYYY?”

I believe God wants us to dream. He made us to create and do and be. But sometimes we get so caught up into the dreaming, we forget the actual doing. We look at the daily humdrum things of life and feel so discontent with where we are.

We need to turn away from those fictional window panes and look at where we sit and find the beauty there. God loves us. He has a plan for each and every one of us; we are where we are for a reason. Just because we may not be out preaching in a foreign country does not mean we are not doing good.

Wherever God has called us is exactly where we need to be. ALL the places of the world need to see His light shine.

God loves us, He cares for us, He wants the absolute best for us. If we are following Him and doing what we believe He wants us to do, then why should we be discontent? He knows us better than we know ourselves after all. So if He puts us in a place, then it has to be better than anywhere we might want to be.

So let’s stop focusing so much on the “then’s” and look to the “now”. Let’s live the lives God has set for us now.

God has been showing me over and over and over again how beautiful life really is, no matter where I am or what I’m going through. From the largest down to the most minute things, beauty is all around us.

With God’s unconditional love for us, and beautiful plans for each and every one of our lives, how can we not be in utter contentment?

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6