Since Eden, man has been reaching for satisfaction with fail. The serpent had managed to confuse man to ask for more, to look for more. And so, man hoping to become like God disobeyed his Creator, lost the paradise he had and thus began a downward spiral into the bottomless pit of discontentment. And now, six thousand and something years later, man is still searching for contentment.
The exponential increase in human inventions is a testimony that man is still searching for satisfaction but it seems to keep eluding him (Ecclesiastes 7:29; 6:7). The story of Eden shall serve as the metaphorical tree from which I shall draw branches and fruits of teachings on contentment.
“Now the serpent was more subtle and crafty than any living creature of the field which God had made. And he [Satan] said to the woman, Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?”, so began the historic encounter of Eden that sent all humanity tumbling down the hill of time (Genesis 3:1).
Notice that the serpent was part of the external social environment of the man. So, understand first that the sense of lack of contentment that you feel is not necessarily your internal reality but a fabrication of the social culture that surrounds your mind. It is essentially often your environments that suggest what they think you need such that many of your so-called needs are hardly intrinsic.
For instance, the existence of man is not in any way dependent on electronic gadgets. But somehow, man’s social environment has found away to forge a contrary idea upon his consciousness through the culture of sophistication – and another phrase for that is fancy complication.
Second, notice that the serpent endeavours to pervert the truth of God. For God had said man could eat fruits from any tree he wanted with only one exception, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). But the serpent comes suggesting that God was saying no fruit of any tree should be eaten, thereby attempting to turn the divine instruction on its head.
Understand therefore that before the “culture of more and more” can get hold of you, it must first rob you of God’s truth for your personal life. Have it at the back of your mind that God’s truth for every man always precludes anxiety.
Third, understand that the mindset of self aggrandisement more often than not exposes you to the risk of losing certainty for uncertainty. We know how the Eden saga ended: man lost sure paradise for the merchandise of the false hope of omniscience the Deceiver sold to him. Realise that your lack of contentment with divine arrangements for your life will cost you in unquantifiable terms.
Christ the Enlightenment of mankind (John 1:9) has said it all as far as contentment is concerned. He has said, “Guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness (the immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more); for man’s life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs” (Luke 12:15).
Materialism does not increase the value of anyone. It might appear to do so in the world of entertainment and showbiz, but of course that world is not real and it is a highly funded illusion masterminded by the enemy of souls to deceive and to waste countless numbers of lives from generation to generation. What actually increases a man’s value is what he releases into his external environment rather than what he receives from it.
The reality is that what you get from your environment is determined by what you have released into that environment. Man releases natural carbon into his natural environment and the trees and plants in his environment in turn give him oxygen for a quality life. But the instance man began to pollute his environment with the artificial carbon from his automobiles and what not, then, the productivity of his natural environment began to wane, and along with it the quality of man’s life.
Therefore, measure your life, not by your gain, but by your loss. In order words, focus your life force more on what you give out rather than on what you accumulate. In any case, material things accumulated cannot satisfy anybody. Rather, they only widen the space for more.
The Holy Scriptures say, “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with gain. This is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)! When goods increase, they who eat them increase also. And what gain is there to their owner except to see them with his eyes?” (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11).
The world today is full of much woes and a lot of unnecessary headaches all because most have failed to attain the consciousness of contentment (1Timothy 6:6-7). So many people are getting hurt because there is a viral lack of the simple but sacrosanct knowledge that in a world where everyone is chiefly concerned with collecting “stuffs” for themselves, there is bound to be a friction; and friction brings heat, and that heat ignites into the fire of chaos in all its mental, physical and social forms.
By way of ramifications, the “haves” continue to grow increasingly unsatisfied in their plenty, while the multitude of the “have-nots” is drying up in their poverty. Invariably there is waste of life and resources on both ends. The rich stoop so low as to do anything to retain their status and the poor grow increasingly destitute of every sense of dignity such that they would swallow anything just to climb out of their seeming disadvantaged status.
Consequently, the line between good and bad continues to fade more and more towards nonexistence. And intentionally, the shadow of indefiniteness is cast on every matter of life so as to let the conscience of every man get away easy from the grip of ethics. Because now, there is no light and there is no darkness; there is no clear idea of right and wrong. And people just play the game of more – a game with no rules, a game of the jungle! And all this is a result of the lack of the sense of contentment.
But the secret of the redemption of the rich is unending honest and meek generosity, understanding that they are only caretakers of the wealth God has allowed to come into their hands (Luke 19:8-9). I know that most women, for some psychological and maybe even biological reasons, are convinced that it is their valid prerogative to stockpile personal material possessions like clothes and shoes, for instance.
But I am inspired to tell you that when your clothing can no longer be contained in one average-sized wardrobe, even as a woman, it is because you are long overdue to give some of them out to those who have less or even none at all. The life of amassing personal material possessions is, at best, a symptom of spiritual immaturity and, at worst, a state of the spiritual dead.
The problem is not the buying of the new or even the luxurious. Rather, the problem is in the hoarding of things you do not need, and probably will not use – and that is passive waste. But the divine and perfectly wise laws of the universe prohibit all kinds of waste, whether active or passive.
It takes divine strength and common sense to be content. Even nature spites avarice. Consider the flies: the mosquito dies young because of drunkenness (of blood); and the housefly, because it does not know how to feast moderately, soon perishes at the very feast.
Moderation is the wisdom that earns a man honour and also preserves him to live to enjoy the honour. It is the expression of dignity to the confounding of all pettiness. And it is a social transaction that buys up cosmic leverage. A spouse incapable of moderation is not worth marrying. An employer or employee who is incapable of moderation is not worth the efforts.
As soon as a man is born again, the Spirit of Christ Jesus begins to work the culture of moderation into the fabrics of his being. As a matter of fact, moderation is a major Christian anthem. But moderation is only the offspring of contentment. One who has not learnt contentment cannot practice moderation. Contentment is the secret of moderation.
