Contentment

Life can be hard.  We all have challenges and stresses.  We've all had bad things happen to us.  We've all been hurt by someone else, and we've all been the one to hurt someone else.  We all regret things we've done, and regret things we haven't done.  Such things are simply truths of human existence.  To say that life is always easy is foolish, yet we cannot allow ourselves to be crushed by the hard times.  Most people, it seems, allow their circumstances to define their level of contentment.  They're only happy when things are going well with their job, or their finances, or their relationships, or whatever it may be.  Following such thinking may be the way of the world, but it is not a path that will ever lead to true happiness.

I am not perfect, and I have no dilusions that I live my life in a flawless manner.  Nor do I have the answer to every question.  However, I am quite a happy person, and this is why: I do not base my happiness on my current circumstances.  I believe very strongly that contentment is a choice, and the biggest part of that choice is this: what is the source of my contentment?  Is it my job, my marriage, my money, my car, my house?  If one of those things has difficulties, or completely breaks down, does my contentment go with it?  My contentment does not rest with such things, but instead with something deeper, something greater.

God is the source and the foundation of my contentment.  That may seem crazy to some, but it is the truth.  These are things I know about God, and they are the reasons I cling to him: God is eternal, all powerful, all knowing, and loves me with a strength and fervor that I can't even grasp.  He holds me and my life in his hands - the same hands that were pierced for me on Calvary, spilling the blood that set me free from my own condemning sin.  These truths make anything bad that can happen in this life seem so insignificant.  There is nothing that can come my way in this life that can take away my contentment, because the source of that contentment is not of this world.  Even if you took away everything I have in this life - my marriage, my house, my car, my friends, all my possessions, one thing would remain: the love of my God, and that love is strong enough to hold me, and that is all I need to be truly content.