Contented God

In his Beyond Greed , Brian Rosner makes the arresting claim that God is a contented God.  The fact that God has created a world distinct from Himself Rosner takes as a kind of divine self-limitation.  Put that to the side, we can still see the contentment of God in the creation account.  Light, separation of light and darkness, and that’s good enough for day 1.  God ceases and waits until Day 2 to start again.  The pattern is repesated on other days, and on most every day God says “Good; I’m content.”

Putting contentment in that context is enormously helpful.  How, after all, is contentment compatible with work, proper ambition, planning and goals?  Am I being discontented if I decide that I want to read yet another book?

In the creation week, God’s contentment is temporally and eschatologically qualified.  ”Good” means “Good for today,” but then the next day He does another good thing.  To be content is to come to evening able to say “Good; things are done enough.”  Even for God, contentment is not Stoic stasis; much less for us.

Eschatologically qualified too: God says “Good; enough” in the light of the next day, and in the light of the Sabbath toward which the whole week moves.  So too throughout history, God is not statically satisfied with where things are right now, but satisfied with where they have come to, how much progress has been made toward His final end of summing up all things in the Son by the Spirit.  The eschatological dimension is especially central for human contentment, since we are always exhorted to be content in the light of greater riches to come.  On every Day 1 and on every Day 4, we rest satisfied in what has been accomplished, confident in God that more and greater is yet to come.