Content in Whatever State I Am

The young nation of Israel certainly wasn’t content after God miraculously rescued them from Egypt. Everybody knows about the forty years of desert wandering God gave Israel as penance for unbelief. They had over two years of preparation – law giving and tabernacle building – and miraculous provision before they started toward the promised land. And still, they were complaining almost all the time. They couldn’t wait to get to the promised land. The record of the Israelites checking out Canaan and refusing to believe God would give it to them is a classic tale of failure to believe. I wonder if ten out of twelve being doubters is a normal ratio. I hate to say it, but I doubt many of my Christian friends would be with Joshua and Caleb; I’m not sure if I would be most days.

The Bible has plenty of other stories of people who had to wait for God. Job went through a lengthy trial before God restored his health and wealth. Abraham waited twenty-five years for Isaac. He never saw a permanent home in the land God promised him. Joseph was in Egypt for ten years or more before he was reunited with his family. Moses spent forty years as an Egyptian prince; forty years as desert shepherd; and finally, forty years as Israel’s leader. Then, like Abraham, he wasn’t permitted to enter the promised land. Joshua had to wait forty-seven years after spying Canaan to see the promised land conquered. The Jews taken captive to Babylon had to wait seventy years to go back home. Mary and Joseph had to wait thirty years and nine months to see the Messiah revealed

The passage of time is a strange thing. It has been five months since we moved to Arizona. (Pun alert: I am content in the state I am in.) Some days I feel like we have been here forever; then it seems like we just got here yesterday. It’s the same with the rest of my life: I have no sense of being seventy years old, yet all the things I have been through seem to fill several lifetimes. It strikes me that God uses our time for His purpose; that must be why the phrase “wait upon the Lord” is so common in Scripture. The problem most of us suffer with is being content to wait.

I don’t think it is always clear why God puts us in a waiting pattern. Looking at the list of Bible characters who had to wait for God, it is clear that not all waiting was due to failure to take God at His word, though some definitely was. Sometimes we can look back and see a reason. It is obvious how Joseph’s ten-year preparation set him up to save his family. Moses’ forty-year shepherd experience in the backside of the desert of Midian clearly prepared him for taking Israel through that same desert years later. The Babylonian captivity was a God-given sentence for Israel’s unbelief. Perhaps one day hindsight will give a clue to why we experience periods of waiting. Perhaps not.

The key to why we wait may be found in something Paul told the Philippians: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” He learned something. Paul mentioned on occasion that he was waiting to visit one church or another; he had to be content to wait until God provided a way there. The context of Paul’s recommendation to the Philippians was related to his personal circumstances which at times must have been difficult to wait through. The list of exciting adventures in the second letter to the Corinthians contains some things anyone would want over quickly: “in afflictions, in distresses, in difficulties, in beatings, in prisons, in disturbances, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in going hungry.” Paul must have wondered how long he would have to put up with situations like those.

I wonder how Paul could claim he was content in all that. I would certainly be looking for a quick and easy way out if those were my circumstances. Or if I was Job or Moses or Joseph. Apparently, faith has a time stamp on it. Paul believed he was doing exactly what God wanted him doing, so he was content, “whatever the circumstances.” That is something I need to keep working on.

My life story is filled with waiting periods. At eight years old, I discovered cars. I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license, but I had eight years to wait – a literal lifetime. My high school sweetheart and I couldn’t wait to get married, so we rushed through our four-year degrees in three years. We wanted children, but there was a miscarriage and four years of waiting before our first. Another miscarriage and four additional years passed before our second came along. Almost four years later we were “surprised” by our third child.

My career has had numerous fits and starts. I decided to become a teacher, but when I graduated, there were hundreds of applications for every opening, so I had to wait a few years doing other things before I landed my first teaching job. I decided I wanted to become an administrator, so I waited through a couple years of graduate school only to discover that the stresses of private school administration were not to my liking. I changed course and began looking for a post-graduate program that would earn me a doctoral degree so I could teach in a teacher college. That wait lasted about ten years.

After burning out in classroom teaching, I took what was to be a two-year sabbatical to finish a novel I had been writing for several years. I remained away from teaching (driving a truck) for twelve years. The novel did finally get published, but I am still waiting to move from the bottom of the Amazon book list. When the 2008 recession forced my small trucking company into bankruptcy, I returned to teaching at a college where after twenty years of waiting, I finally realized my dream of teaching teachers. I had periods of peace of mind throughout my career, but I never reached the Pauline standard of contentment in “whatever.”

All of this says nothing of the fact that I have wanted to customize every car I ever owned (over 250 and counting); I wanted to remodel every house we ever owned (6 – 7 if you count my current stationary RV); I constantly tinker with projects large and small with an eye toward improving function or efficiency. Doubtless the most damaging aspect of my discontent is how it affects people around me. My wife long ago quit telling me to stop trying to “fix” her when all I wanted was to help her in some way. My children will testify that I was impossible to please. Even my sincere compliments usually went something like, “That was really great, but….” It seems I was never content.

There is one aspect of my discontent that I am happy with – sort of a contented discontent. (I know that’s an oxymoron.) I am not content with my conformation to the image of Christ. I am not content with my knowledge of God. I am not content with my understanding of the Bible. If I understand the message the Bible teaches about life hereafter, I won’t ever be content with the praise I can offer God. These are all good things.

If you are content with the Bible sitting on your coffee table, I recommend you pick it up and read it every day until you find my level of discontent. If you think you know God perfectly well, I recommend you reexamine your idea of who God is. If you are content with your progress toward the likeness of Christ in all your life and behavior, I recommend you stop right now and confess your failure and pray for discontent. I am learning, as Paul suggested, to be content in whatever my earthly circumstances may be, but my spiritual contentment is yet in the future. I might wish a little contented discontent for you as well.

Related posts: Through the Bible in Seven Minutes; The Knowledge of Good and Evil; Why Heaven Matters