Two little teardrops were floating down the river of life; one said to the other, “Who are you?”
“I am a teardrop from a girl who loved a man and lost him. Who are you?”
“Well, I am a teardrop from the girl who got him.”
Ever feel that life is sometimes like that? We cry over the things we don’t or can’t have; but if we ever got them, we might just cry much more!
A story is told of a Puritan who sat down to his meal and found that he had only a little bread and some water. His response was to exclaim, “What! All this and Jesus, too!”
Most of us have not yet learned the blessedness of pure contentment. There is something that we still long for that seems forever out of reach. What Paul admonished seems so first-century to those of us living two thousand years later: “And having food and raiment let us therewith be content.” (I Tim.6:8)
The theologian Thomas a Kempis was on to it in the 15th century: “Choose rather to want less, than to have more.”
And, the missionary martyr Jim Elliot once wisely wrote to his wife, Elizabeth: “Let not our longing slay the appetite of our living. We accept and thank God for what is given, not allowing what is not given to spoil it.”
A diseased toddler learned what it would do all of us well to learn. She had worked on mastering the 23rd Psalm by using her fingers. Starting with her small finger, she would grab each finger as she said each word, “The Lord is my shepherd;” and, as she said the word “shepherd,” she would clasp her thumb in recognition of the care He has for her. One morning, after a long and hard fight against the disease, she was found dead with her hand clasped around her thumb. (Told by Elizabeth Elliot in a 1978 Missions Conference in Dallas, Texas.)
In his book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Phillip Keller noted that it is almost impossible to get sheep to lie down unless four essentials are in place: (1) They must be free from all fear; (2) They must be free from friction with others of their kind; (3) They must be free from flies or parasites so that they can relax; and (4) They must be free from hunger. Only a good shepherd can provide the sheep in his care what is needed to make them free from anxieties, so that they will lie down to rest. Jesus, our good shepherd, provides all of what we need so that we can “lie down in green pastures,” knowing that we “shall not want.”
A British actor, idolized by millions of fans for his roles in popular movies, once told an interviewer that fame had let him down, so that he struggled with depression and career anxiety. He said, “I went through a big time of depression. I couldn’t go where I wanted to go; I was in tabloids every day, and I didn’t have access to the roles I really wanted. I wanted more on every level.”
The poor soul had fame and fortune as few would ever know, yet he suffered from career anxiety and severe depression. How crucial are the words of the prophet Jeremiah, who affirmed: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river.” (Jeremiah 17:7,8)
Are you content with how God made you? With where God has placed you? With how God has equipped you? And with how God is using you?
“I don’t know how to say it, but somehow it seems to me, That maybe we are stationed where God wanted us to be; That little place I’m filling is the reason for my birth, and just to do the work I do He put me on this earth.” (Unknown)
Paul, writing to his protégé and son in the faith, warned Timothy about falling into the “seeking for riches” trap. He bluntly said, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us therewith be content.” (I Tim. 6:7,8)
And let us therewith be content. What is your contentment level today? Are you content with how God made you, equipped you, placed you, is using you?
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (I Tim.6:6)
YOU and GOD 