It’s the new year, which means many of us start thinking about self-improvements. Whether it’s going back to school, starting a new career, looking for a new job, dieting, exercise, or reading more, there are endless ways people work to improve themselves. One of the reasons we try to improve ourselves is because we feel something is missing in our lives. Most people seek a sense of contentment, often through self-improvement means. But what if contentment comes not from endless diets or fads, but something else in our lives? 1 Timothy 6:6-11 says:
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. (NIV)
With the advance of the new year, I challenge you to try something different: find a sense of contentment this year.
Pursuing greatness in the wrong places
About three weeks ago, I saw someone make a general statement to all of Facebook: “You are destined for greatness!” I then took note of the vast number of comments beneath it, all of which were excited about the prospect. People saw that word and thought, this is it! Every concept they had attached to greatness was about to manifest: that new business would make a million dollars, they’d get that new car, they would be famous, their ministry would take off, they would have the relationship they always wanted, and a host of other things…none of which, in the long run, probably had much to do with their spiritual lives.
As I scanned, this burst of spiritual cheerleading left me with more questions. It also made me think, long and hard, about why the Bible instructs us to “be content.” Why was this a Biblical virtue, and why is it something that we have so much trouble attaining?
The first – and perhaps most obvious – thing about the post that I saw was the realization that such teaching isn’t really new. It’s vague and leading, and deliberately designed to be that way. Its purpose exists to avoid actually dealing with spiritual virtue, all the while promoting human competitive nature as a spiritual concept. It sounds really great to think that whatever our value of “greatness” is ours, just because we are believers. But, as we study Scripture, we learn this is not always a reality.
A lesson in the need for contentment
The Old Testament tells us the story of Israel, a nation with a specific mandate: to be God’s chosen nation, set apart from all other nations. If we read through the original covenant God made with Israel, we learn they weren’t selected because they were the biggest nation, one obviously selected for greatness by their immediate nature. God specifically chose Israel because they weren’t “great” in the eyes of everyone around them, and by following God’s precepts, He would turn them into something great.
This “greatness,” however, wasn’t going to look like the greatness of every other nation around them, thus taking the competitive nature out of it. They would be great because God made them great, and they were not supposed to succumb to the temptation to be like everyone else. Their focus was to be the things of God, and they were to be content with God as their God and them as His people.
Fast-forward through the Pentateuch, the historical books, and the Prophets, and what do we find? The nation of Israel wanted to be great, and define their greatness by everyone around them. They were never content, always seeking out the latest false god, corrupting the worship of Israel and their own goals. Their definition of greatness wasn’t contentment; it was outdoing everyone else while looking and being just like them.
Examination of our “rat race”
I vaguely remember when this spiritual rat race all started. In the years between 2008 and 2010, back when social networking was new (with forums such as Facebook innovative), spiritual rat race messages also seemed new and innovative. Nearly a day couldn’t go by without someone sending me an inbox or posting on my feed about how I was destined for great and big things.
There was never a whole lot of elaboration on just what those things were. At most, common things to mention were extensive worldwide travel and money for ministry. More often than not, those things were somehow implied. God was going to make us all a household word, raise us all up, make us all famous, give us all the money and lives we desired, and give us perfect relationships. We wouldn’t have to do a thing, be any kind or type of minister; we were just “destined for greatness,” and it would find us.
Fast-forward now several years later, you have the reality that nothing anyone said happened, at least not on the scale they indicated. Nobody foresaw COVID-19’s existence or the toll it would take on the church. The scandals that have rocked church denominations? Everyone missed those. As people argued over whether or not Trump should be in office for another term, the world literally passed us by. With the exponential rising cost of everything, many churches and ministers now turn to other things in the hope their “greatness” will be found in them.
Competition is not a spiritual virtue
I remember a time in church when our natural compulsion toward superiority and competition with others weren’t considered spiritual virtues. Yeah, it’s some years back, but there was a time when instead of talking about outdoing our haters, pushing couples to become the ultimate perfect “power couple” marriages, constant messages about living our “best lives” (when they actually mean we should push to run the rat race even more and out-produce everyone else) and constant spiritual “word” about “greatness,” we talked about things in church like…God. Our purpose in being in church was to worship God, to learn about the things of God, and to learn more about how to do the things of God. It wasn’t about us and what we could get out of it and strange ways of contriving stuff to be all about us.
It was different. Somehow, it was quieter. And somehow, no matter how complicated things might have been back then (I’m not daring to suggest we didn’t deal with toxic ideas in our churches in those days), we somehow made it through, without endless spiritual bolstering. Why? Our expectations were lower, because we were encouraged to pursue contentment rather than “greatness.”
The abstract nature of greatness
“Greatness” can be a bit of an abstract concept.The vague pursuit of it can set us on a path to where we are never content. This makes me stop and ask:
- What if “greatness,” as we often associate it with fame, fortune, and public success, just isn’t for you?
- What if “greatness,” for you, is an ordinary life, with ordinary contentment?
- What if it’s not an endless source of outdoing your “haters” and showing people up at every turn?
- What if it’s just finding peace in your life, your relationship, your ministry (if you have one), and coming to enjoy the good that comes your way, no matter how it might come?
“Greatness” doesn’t have to look like fame, fortune, and extravagant lifestyles. It can look like contentment, peace, and satisfaction. Gratitude can be an essential part of it. It doesn’t have to be all about everyone else and trying to look like them. Finding God’s place for you – especially if you are a minister – can take you to a place of contentment rather than competition.
Contentment and partnership with God
Lately I’ve thought a lot about what I am looking for in my life and my ministry. Remarriage and shortly relocating to another house have both made me think about things. These aren’t the only things, however. It’s also been a combination of massive change within the ministry over the past few years, bringing things to the realization that as the world changes, I need to prepare better than before. I don’t need a vague, leading message to cheer on past ideals. I need a now message, one that helps me focus and see where I need to be, as well as where I am going, and how to get there.
While my ministry vision is definitely bigger than it is now, I’ll admit it’s quite different than the one I had when everyone spoke “greatness” over me years ago. Now, it’s hard to get anyone to speak much of anything; but maybe that’s all right, in its own way. Maybe I don’t define ministry “greatness” quite in the same way I once did, either.
I’m accepting within contentment that I don’t get to dictate all my terms. Ministry is a partnership with God, and with the community I serve, as a whole. It’s not all about me and my aspirations or me and my ideas; it’s about something else, something like God spoke to Israel, all those years ago. The point isn’t to turn my ministry into something that resembles everyone else’s, but to pursue the things of God to find a place where it is successful and I am content with what I experience therein. Through it, God reaches others; through what I deal with in it, God reaches me.
Not needing to be an empire
One thing I’ve come to realize is that I don’t want my marriage to be part of the spiritual rat race display. I don’t want to feel like husband and I are aspiring to be some abstract concept of ministry “success.” So often, this thinking pushes us to create fantasy lives and fantasy partners, an illusion that we expect God will “provide” us with just the right mate to plop in the middle of our fantasy existence. God doesn’t do this, however. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I don’t want to be a power couple, “perfectly matched” with someone who I have every single imaginable thing in common. My personal relationship doesn’t have to become an “empire.” What if we are just content together; accepting of our differences; and embracing of what we can build together in life.
I also, much like I said about ministry, recognize that deciding what it looks like isn’t just up to me. It’s not about me envisioning a whole relationship in a life and then fitting someone into that ideal. People do that left, right, and sideways today, and it never works. We decide what we like, or want to have, and expect someone else to fit into that vision without considering their needs or vision for things. Relationships are not binaries; they are situations where we deliberately force ourselves to have to communicate, interact, and negotiate with another person. We don’t get to have our way all the time, because that’s the opposite of the spiritual sanctification God seeks to provide us in relationships. Here, we learn how to behave differently and find our spiritual virtues in difficulty as we overcome personal selfishness and yes, competitiveness.
God at the center of our greatness
Ecclesiastes 5:18-19 offers us sound advice:
This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. (NIV)
No matter what we have, how much we have, or where we are at in life, we can all find God, right at the center, teaching and guiding us to just what “greatness” looks like for each one of us. Maybe we need to take a break from the ideas of “greatness” that are binding us more and more to the immediacies of this world and slow down a bit.
The reality is that the majority of us aren’t going to walk in immense wealth, conflict-free relationships, perfect businesses, and constant success. Life is a cycle that involves ups and downs, successes and failures, hits and misses. Things go wrong, then they reach a point and they get right again. Our deepest purpose in all of it is not to find endless reasons to compete, but to find God and His Word to us in everything that comes along. If we will only stop trying to constantly achieve, maybe we will find contentment right where we are.
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