Clocklike Contentment

(Me) "Listen, I'll do anything God wants, go anywhere he pleases and be both content and happy with it. I know that where ever he places me is where I'll be the happiest and the most content, even if that's in some foreign country ducking bullets while going to church. He's (God) just gotta tell me where to go."

(Mentor) "I disagree with two things you said: First, that you will be happy where ever God calls you. That's your first mistake; Joy is God give, Contentment is learned, and as for Happiness, well that's just a fleeting feeling that we are sometimes blessed to encounter while living out the other two. Secondly, how can you say you will be content ducking bullets in a foreign country while going to church if you can't even learn contentment here at Valley Forge Christian College?"

Talk about a reality check... but I can honestly say that it's so true. I am always seeking after contentment but I never seem to find it. But that's just it, I wont find it until I learn it. I wish I had some amazing method to explain to you on how to grow to be content, but I'm still learning how myself. What I will say is this: 

Contentment is found and perfected in obeying Gods laws. 

This doesn't mean that we have to lose sleep over being perfect, it means obeying what God has told us to do. To love our neighbor as ourself. And that neighbor is God too! We need to learn to love God the way we love ourselves, and in doing so we will begin to love ourselves more. 

2 John 6 says, "And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments." That's love, to obey, to observe, and to follow the commandments of God. He has whats best for me in my life. Still though I struggle greatly with being content. It's frustrating because I am always looking for the next thing, and then when it gets here, instead of enjoying that moment, I'm already looking for the next one. It's a lot like what Hyoi (from Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis) says when he answers Ransoms question about pleasure; "Maledil made us so. How could there ever be enough to eat if everyone had twenty young? And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back - if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?" 

I feel like the person that Hyoi is speaking of here. Always looking for that same day to repeat, or looking for the greatest moment to come. That's the problem though, my expectation is that one day something great will just pop up out of nowhere. But that's not how life works. Each hour makes up each day, and each day makes up our life. Learning to be content means learning to obey God. If you're like me you constantly pray, "Oh God, speak to me," but maybe what you need to be praying is, "God teach me to obey and observe your commandments, because that's what you've been speaking to me and I haven't listened."

"True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare." -G.K. Chesterton

Father of each hour, Lord of the week,

Bath my heart in your Joy,

Illuminate my mind with your wisdom,

And bind your law to my soul.

Let my heart delight in doing your will,

May my lips be silent, and my hands diligent,

As I humbly pursue your statutes.

-The Albatross