I once suggested to a group of Christian leaders that we should embrace contentment as a value.  You’d have thought that I proposed streaming Saw II behind their Sunday morning worship lyrics.  The reigning idea within Christendom is simple: “Contentment breeds complacency.”  If people feel quieted and peaceful, there’s a good chance they won’t change.  Maybe there is more than one accepted definition of content.  Maybe that’s the problem…

Contentment is such a huge biblical idea, you find it everywhere throughout scripture.  It starts showing up early on in the Book.  Discontent shows up in Genesis 3 and ruins the whole Paradise Garden, the gift of God.  Contentment, the ideal, remains so important to God’s work in the life of his people it makes it into the Ten Commandments.  “Thou shalt not covet” is a sexier way to say – “Be content!”  Early rabbis taught that the tenth commandment was also a promise, as in, “If you do these other nine things, you will not live in envy.”  What a unique perspective.  If discontent ruined everything, then following the heartbeat of God will somehow undo the disquiet that lives naturally within the hearts of humankind.

The whole of the Hebrew Scriptures then point to Shalom.  The New Testament carries out that thought using a Greek version of the word Shalom (though it is less powerful and developed) – transliterated – Eirene.  The idea put forth in scripture is wholeness.  Imagine bring that to a family reunion!  Your siblings would think that your doctor upped your dosage!

The shalom idea is so huge scripture donates an almost unlimited amount of words to drive home the point: sufficiency, loving-kindness, contentment, peace, to name a few.  The origins of these qualities are always the same: God.  It is supposed to be clear to the reader that God’s intentions are, and have always been, restoration and reconciliation and thereby we join a journey towards wholeness, peace with God.

The great prayer of Israel reads:

⁴“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Did you catch that?  Heart.  Soul.  Might.  Your whole being.

⁶And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

That’s a lot of reminders.  But as God continues to speak there is something else that comes through in his message…

¹⁰“And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you-with great and good cities that you did not build, ¹¹and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant-and when you eat and are full, ¹² then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (italics mine)

This God, whom we are to love with our whole being, wants to give us things we have not earned or worked for, and in exchange he asks that we REMEMBER.  Personally, I’d ask for more, but he is God.  Just REMEMBER.  Be satisfied.

It’s kind of like optimism, except it is way different.  Contentment is kind of like happiness, but it is not dependent upon circumstances or the presence of a smile.  It is not flashy.  It won’t make the news, but you’ll know it when you see it.

As I mentioned earlier, this exploration into contentment will take some time.  We’ll be exploring topics like: how to cultivate contentment, things that rob contentment, why you’re afraid of it, and so on.  If you enjoyed today’s post, I recommend subscribing via email or using your RSS feedreader.  Have a great weekend.  See you Tuesday.

RoP