Satisfied or Content? - May 21, 2009

Good Thursday morning! We are back to spring weather after a taste of July for the past three days. President Obama is going to speak in a few minutes, so I will try to get something sent out. The question today is: are you content where you are? First, we need to figure out just what this contentment thing is. I don't think that it means you and I are to be satisfied with where we are spiritually or physically. If I am completely satisfied with my house, I will never work to improve it. If I am satisfied with my body, I won't work to improve that either. Contentment doesn't seem to be satisfaction. If you are satisfied with where you are financially, why continue going to work? In your profession you will done learning when you become satisfied with your knowledge. So what is contentment?

Webster's says: content: happy enough with what one has or is; not desiring something more or different; satisfied. Oops, what happened with that last word there? Hmm, my cat is satisfied with an old slipper to play with. However, should a mouse run across the floor while he is playing with the slipper, he would no longer be satisfied with the slipper. To me he is not content. The difference to me, perhaps not to Webster's, would be that if he were truly content with the slipper, the mouse could stop, do a short tap dance, and the cat would continue enjoying the slipper. Webster's might say that the cat was content with the slipper, but now will only be content with the mouse. In that case, it seems that contentment would be a pursuit, not a state.

So, can we be content with where we are in Christ, but not satisfied with our current state? Whoops, the President's live feed just got whacked. So, back to the matter at hand. We realize that the work in us is not yet finished. Temptations come and sometimes we fall into sin. We should never be satisfied with that. However, we are content with where we are now because we have faith that God will complete the work in us. Put it this way, I am content with where Christ has me now, but I am not always satisfied with my own efforts. There, I seem to have at once set myself against the authority on American English, and mucked up an explanation. Okay, so not every devotional can be a figurative home run.

God bless and keep you!

Bucky