Tag Archives: Contentment

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Numbers 3

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God spoke to Moses. He said, “Bring forward the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron so they can help him. They shall work for him and the whole congregation at the Tent of Meeting by doing the work of The Dwelling. Numbers 3:5-7 (MSG)

Every successful organization requires a diverse people with diverse sets of gifts and abilities. We need each other. When casting a show for the local community theatre, I’m always left with difficult choices. Many people want to be in the lead roles, standing in the spotlight, but everyone can’t have that role. The truth is that a really good production requires talented people to capably fill every role large and small, on stage and off. Some of my favorite roles over the years have been bit parts.

Nevertheless, every director or producer must eventually confront the frustration and anger of those who did not get cast in the roles they wanted. It comes with the job. You will always be second guessed. You will likely be threatened. You will never make everyone happy. Welcome to leadership.

In today’s chapter, the tribe of Levi is appointed among all the twelve tribes to manage the giant travelling tent sanctuary called the Tabernacle. Within the tribe of Levi, each clan was given responsibility for different parts of the massive structure.

Having helmed a handful of productions and having been in a leadership role in many different organizations over the years, I immediately began to hear the grumbling and complaints that had to have filtered their way up to Moses:

“Why do Aaron and his sons always get the important job? It’s all gone to their heads, I tell you. A bunch of arrogant jerks acting like they’re better than everyone else just because they’re the only ones who get to perform the sacrifices!”

“How in the world did the Gershonites get appointed to take care of the tent? They couldn’t patch so much as a water skin if their lives depended on it!”

“It would figure that Merari clan would get the easy job. They’ve always been a bunch of slackers.”

Not everyone gets the roles they want. As much as I may desire to have certain talents and abilities, I must eventually accept and celebrate the person God made me to be. I must bloom where I’m planted in the role appointed for me while appreciating and being grateful for others who use their own unique abilities in roles for which I’m not suited.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Matthew 14

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'curb it'
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“All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said. Matthew 14:17 (MSG)

It’s clean up week in my town. People can go through their homes and put large, bulky things they don’t want on the curb for the garbage truck to haul away. The result is an ant-like army scurrying around town picking up trash off other people’s yards. My wife and I like to put things on the curb and guesstimate how long it’s going to last before someone stops and takes it. There have been times when I’ve hauled something to the curb and someone has stopped to take it before I could walk back to my house. There’s generally not much of anything left for the garbage man.

Over the last few years, I’ve had a goal of simplifying my life. I’m a work in progress, but I have a genuine desire to get rid of stuff I don’t need or use. I really do want to do more with less. One of the most fascinating things about clean up week is that many of the people who I see running around picking up other people’s trash are those who really appear not to need it. They have plenty of money and plenty of junk. How fascinating, this allure to hoard more.

How fascinating the disciples thinking. “All we have…” That’s scarcity thinking: “It’s not enough.” That’s shame thinking: “What we have is worthless for the task.”

I’ve learned a few things in my journey towards simplicity.  I’ve learned that I can actually get by with far less than I already have. I’ve also learned that less clutter and less crap creates a greater sense of peace, and more room for the things of God. The more I have, the more for which I’m responsible. The more I have to store. The more I have to think about. The more to which I must tend.

Jesus’ lesson to me today is a reminder that I have more than enough to do what He wants me to do. No thinking “If only I had…” or “I don’t have…” or “As soon as I get…” or “But, all I have is…” I am blessed with more than what is sufficient for the task.

Fish sandwich, anyone?

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 12

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You are right, O God, and you set things right. I can’t argue with that. But I do have some questions:
Why do bad people have it so good?
   Why do con artists make it big?
You planted them and they put down roots.
   They flourished and produced fruit.
They talk as if they’re old friends with you,
   but they couldn’t care less about you.
Meanwhile, you know me inside and out.
   You don’t let me get by with a thing!
Jeremiah 12:1-4 (MSG)

One thing I have noticed a long the way; It is very difficult for us to stop comparing ourselves to others.

  • “Why won’t you buy me a car? Every one of my girlfriends’ parents bought them a car!”
  • “The only reason that guy got published was because he’s the son of someone famous. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Why don’t I have those connections?”
  • “I went to my friends house. It’s so big, and it’s so beautiful. Why can’t I have that?”
  • “That guy runs his business with less integrity than the mafia and he’s making money hand over fist. I try so hard to do the right thing and I can’t get a new client to save my life. What’s up with that?!”
  • “Why does that guy win the lottery and I’m still stuck with more bills than income this month? What gives, God? How about giving me a break for once!”
  • “At least I’m not THAT down-and-out guy. I must be doing something right.”
  • “Awwwww. Her husband gave her flowers. Why does she get him and I’m stuck being married to such an insensitive dork.” 

I am on my own personal journey. It is my journey and while there are certain things common to the human experience, it is still unique. God’s plan for someone else is different than His plan for me. Comparing their path and mine is apples and oranges. My job is to walk my own path well, and seek God’s will for me in each step. I will always be able to find others who appear to have it better, easier, and happier than I do despite the fact that they also appear to fall short of my own personal sense of self-righteousness.

“But Godliness with contentment is great gain.” I Timothy 6:6 (NIV)

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Chronicles 26

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But then the strength and success went to his head. Arrogant and proud, he fell. One day, contemptuous of God, he walked into The Temple of God like he owned it and took over, burning incense on the Incense Altar. 2 Chronicles 26:16 (MSG)

There is an order to things. God is a God of detail and order. It’s one of the reasons I really like Bach, Handel, and other baroque music. There is a symmetry and order to the music. It reminds me of God’s left brain in the midst of the chaos we make of His creation.

There was an order to things. It’s back to the archetypes I mentioned a few chapters back. Kings and Priests had different functions. They each performed a unique role. Kings aren’t Priests and Priests aren’t Kings. When Uzziah broke rank and tried to take the priestly role by force bad things happened.

I look back over my life and see so much of myself in Uzziah’s actions: Refusing to rest in the order God created; Discontent; Wanting to be what I’m not created to be. Snubbing the role God’s given me on life’s stage because I want someone else’s spotlight.

Today, I’m seeking to rest in that natural order of things. I’m celebrating the role God’s given me in this life and place He’s given me. I’m enjoying God’s left-brain.

(Enjoy a little Bach with me!)

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 9

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Round and around and around. Appetites insatiable, stuffing and gorging themselves left and right with people and things. But still they starved. Not even their children were safe from their rapacious hunger. Isaiah 9:20 (MSG)

I have an appetite for food that, left to myself, finds me overweight and unhealthy. I have an appetite for sex which, left unchecked, leads me to all sorts of dark places and disastrous consequences. I have an appetite for leisure and, if I allow it to take over, it will lead to several areas of my life falling apart. I have an appetite for riches that, without proper boundaries, will leave me indebted and empty-handed. I have an appetite for pleasure that, if I'm not careful, will lead me into a never-ending cycle of looking for new highs for which I will sacrifice anything and everything.

I wish I'd thought more, and understood more, about the core issue of my appetites when I was younger. Increasingly, I begin to understand how much of the life-pain I experience comes from uncontrolled, unchecked, insatiable appetites which demand to be fed constantly and increasingly. Heedlessly feeding my appetites always leave me empty, craving more.

As I've learned to choose the path of contentment over the insane roundabout of my appetites, I've gained increasing clarity. God's message says that godliness with contentment is a means of great gain. I'm finding it true. I can't move forward if I'm running in circles trying to endlessly feed an insatiable hunger.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Kings 15

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I80 western nebraska. Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah. He was king in Samaria for only a month. 2 Kings 15:13 (MSG)

Bear with me today, as my impressions from the chapter are more wholistic instead of being linked to a particular verse.

I've had a case of the blues for the past couple of weeks. Life feels a bit stagnant at the moment. It's sort of like driving through western Nebraska. You know that you are moving down the road, but you wouldn't know it from looking out the window. The view isn't changing. This has been a very long, very cold, very snowy winter. I feel a bit snowbound. I'm tired of gloomy, snowy days and long, dark nights. The days all seem the same. I feel like hope blew away in one of the three-storms-a-week blizzards a while back. [I'll stop whining now]

At the same time, I feel a whirlwind in the lives around me. A friend with an exciting new job. Another friend shocked to be released from his job. Yet another friend and his family struggling through the whirlwind of activity and emotion which accompanies the journey's home stretch. Surgeries, pregnancies, illness, divorces, changes, and moves. I watch them all from my computer screen inside Vander Well Manor. [Did I mention I was going to stop whining?]

I was struck, as I read today's chapter, of the contrast between Judah's experience and Israel's experience during this section of the historical timeline. Uzziah becomes king in Judah and rules for an impressive 52 years. Israel, on the other hand, becomes a revolving door of leadership. There is no clear royal line. It appears that, if you had the gonads to pull off an assassination, anyone had a shot at the throne. Of course, your reign might be as brief as Shallum because there were plenty of guys with gonads lining up in the queue to take their shot and off you.

One nation with a long, steady, even monotonous experience while next door there is a flurry of chaos and change. It reminds me today that there is a time for everything; a season for every purpose under heaven.

God, be near my friends who journey on a much different road than mine right now. Be near me on my own long, flat path as the experience that feels so different, and a bit lonely. Amen.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Judges 13

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Sheer wonder. The angel of God said, "What's this? You ask for my name? You wouldn't understand—it's sheer wonder." Judges 13:18 (MSG)

There is so much about God which I don't comprehend. There are so many things I don't understand about His ways. I am befuddled. I'm so desperately frustrated with His silence and disappointed when my heart's desire is perpendicular to His Truth. I try to define Him. I try to wrap my finite mental boundaries around Him. I try to reduce Him into containable thought which will fit neatly and comfortably in the cultural, intellectual and emotional box I've created for Him. But, He never quite fits inside the box. It always ends up being both messy and uncomfortable for me.

Even His name defies reduction into our human language. It can't be contained in the limited letters, syllables and words of our most exhaustive dictionary. I reach to grasp for it, and find that it's always a little further up and further in. I sometimes touch it, but never quite grasp hold of it.

Today, I'm reminded of my need to sit in wonder and be content.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Micah 6

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Not all that glitters is gold. No matter how much you get, it will never be enough— hollow stomachs, empty hearts.No matter how hard you work, you'll have nothing to show for it— bankrupt lives, wasted souls. Micah 6:14 (MSG)

Materialism is a jealous lover. She commands every thought. She demands incessant desire. Pursue her; seek after the latest, the newest, the shiny thing that everyone must have. Reach, stretch, claw to get that one thing. To touch it, to possess it will feel so good, she says. Then, I will have arrived. Then, I will be satisfied. Materialism. She rewards with a fleeting orgasm of satisfaction. It feels so good for a moment. Then it quickly fades. Emptiness and hollowness creep back into the vacuum of a vacant soul. The cycle starts over. My lover, she points to the new conquest. My eyes gaze upon the next object of desire to be pursued in the cycle of never enough.

God, teach me to be content.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Exodus 24

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O'hare nightmares.

Then Moses climbed the mountain. The Cloud covered the mountain. The Glory of God settled over Mount Sinai. The Cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called out of the Cloud to Moses. Exodus 24:15-16 (MSG)

Wendy and I made our way back from the east coast yesterday. We'd been there for four days on business and we were tired. We'd already extended our stay by a day. United gouged us on price for changing our itinerary.  Then, it was just one of those days. I spilled scalding hot coffee on myself. Wendy left her iPod on the plane. We had to scurry around the bowels of O'Hare airport to file a lost article report. The more tired we felt, the more impatient we got.

Upon reflection, it is still a wonder that we could wake up looking over the Atlantic ocean and walk through our back door, fourteen hundred miiles away, in a matter of a few hours. How discontent, how impatient we've become.

I found it interesting that for all the pomp and fireworks on the mountain, God did not call out to Moses for seven days, and Moses was up there on the mountain for forty days and nights. I can't imagine how impatient people got waiting for him to come down.

Today, I'm reminded that God exists and operates beyond linear human timelines. His purposes are far greater than my modern day impatience, lack of contentment, and petty demands. God, help me let go of my self-centered impatience, and find rest in your perfect will.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 131

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Still waiting. Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always! Psalm 131:3 (MSG)

Waiting is a character-producing activity. Even calling the task of waiting an activity seems oxymoronic. Waiting feels like doing nothing. Waiting feels like wasted time.

Still, I'm reminded by the lyrics of today's chapter that my waiting is not void of direction, purpose or activity. I'm to learn contentment as I cool it. I'm to hope while I'm on hold.

[sigh] Man, waiting is hard work.

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