Present Contentment
It's funny how some big dream can mess up our contentment in our current situations. We see a couple of incredible occurrences and we might even have the talent to do them, and then we look back at our ordinary, everyday lives.
Sometimes, or rather, invariably, our life will seem like a mundane repetition from day to day. It's hard to see how we can be serving the Lord mightily. So, when we look at those exciting things, we suddenly desire to do them even if the idea is far off and unrealistic.
We can't see the joy in our everyday lives because we're looking at an imaginary future, wondering what it will be like and how we'll get there. It's an exciting feeling, but eventually, it becomes consuming. Normal life isn't good enough, and discontentment sets in.
Why am I saying this?
Well, it has happened to me recently. I've been fairly certain about what God wants me to do with myself for a while, but suddenly, I saw this new and thrilling idea that coincides with a talent I have. It ruined my peace because I stopped finding contentment and satisfaction in the daily work God has given me.
When I finally had a conversation or two with my parent, rationalizing through those feelings, I realized that the idea was only a dream. Speculating about it was fun, but I had dreamed too far, and it was time to look back at the present.
The peace and contentment I felt afterward, were so much sweeter because of the lack of them formerly. I am glad for the place that I'm at and the tasks, however mundane, that I have been given.
"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."- Phillipians 4:11
In this verse, Paul is talking about finding contentment, even if he was short on physically necessary supplies. But this applies to what I've learned as well. Even if we don't have what most deem an exciting task, what we do have is everything we need to bring honor to God.
