Contentment

My wife and I love watching the show Fixer Upper where a husband and wife duo help people purchase a new home and then renovate it into something beautiful. I personally think the husband named Chip is very funny while my wife loves Joanna and her style. The interaction between the two is something to see. I enjoy all the demolition, the new ideas and changes they bring to these older homes but when it comes to the final reveal of seeing the house and what it was to what it has become, I am done watching it! Here is the reason why. Seeing that "finished house" and how great it looks makes our house look like crap! I don't like that feeling so instead of feeling that way about my house, I walk away and leave my wife dreaming, grumbling and wishing for her own dream home!
That feeling can happen and honestly does happen to all of us the second we begin to compare what we have or look like to others or what we don't have.The dictionary defines CONTENT as being satisfied with what one is or has. It is what every commercial or advertisement addresses to its viewer or reader. Your car is not good enough! Your face isn't smooth enough! Your clothes are not hip enough!
The Apostle Paul addresses this in Philippians 4:11 where he says...Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. That is an amazing statement because he states that while he is in prison! You see, Paul didn't experience prison like prisoners do today. There were no visits from family, no cable TV or card games. It was a cold, dark place but in the midst of being in one of the worst places anyone could be, Paul was CONTENT! Why? Well that's easy to explain. He didn't focus on what he didn't have but rather what he did have and that was a personal relationship with Christ...Paul was satisfied!
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of returning home to see my parents and family. I showed up at 806 E. Tucker in Arlington, TX to the home where I grew up. My childhood home hasn't changed much, but the neighborhood sure has. It is rundown. Neighbors have let their yards get out of control. Houses all around need painting and it just isn't the same anymore...but there still reside my Mom and Dad after 40+ years. I took this picture from inside out of the kitchen window of them two sitting in the swing one morning...it speaks for itself! I thought as I snapped this picture how I wish that they could spend these later days in life sitting on a country porch and looking out over a beautiful Texas landscape. I thought how deserving they are because of their lives that they have lived serving the Lord but instead, there they sit in a Walmart swing looking out over a neighbors yard that so desperately needed its grass cut. How do two people in their 80's seem to be so happy? Well, that too is easy to explain. My Mom and Dad have lived a life of CONTENTMENT.They are completely satisfied! They have never focused or dwelled on what they did not have but rather they directed all of their efforts in life into what they do have and His name is Jesus!
Consider Your Ways...Pastor John