Contentment

Lessons from the weed

Somewhere in time A.D. 61 and March 2011

Philippians 4:11 (INV)     “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

Have you ever thought of the word contentment?  I haven’t given it much thought. After all, I’m always looking for the next thing, the next thing to do, the next thing to change.  One day, I was praying for God to change things and God brought the word contentment to my mind.  I think He may have only been able to get in one word, but His one word stumped me.  Was I content?  I really didn’t have anything to not be content about. I have enough food, enough cloths to wear, and a nice house to live in. I want for nothing, yet I was not content. Paul wrote in Philippines, in what every circumstance I am content.  Paul was beaten, shipwrecked and imprisoned and yet he was content.

On my way to work, I saw a weed.  It was growing at the base of a stop sign in the middle of a three lane road.  There was a field on one side of the road and to me this looked like a better place for a weed to grow.  The field had lots of room to grow, but the weed was growing at the base of the stop sign, a small opening in the black top of the road.   It was not a small sickly weed, it was flourishing.  God reminded me that I needed to be more like the weed. I need to be blessing the dirt instead of cursing the black top around me. 

If we use Paul as our example, we can learn the meaning of contentment.  He knew he was doing what God called him to do and that was enough.  It made me realize just how self-focused I am at times and how ungrateful I am for the goodness God brings into my life.  The weed really ministered to me that day and now I am trying to be more thankful for my own patch of dirt and I pray God will allow me to bloom where I am planted.