Monday, September 20, 2021 Musings

Random thoughts:

I continue to listen to a podcast that features speeches over the years given by Elisabeth Elliot. It’s one of my favorite podcasts and I never tire of her plain-speaking wisdom and whole-hearted reliance on the Word of God. She occasionally throws out some really great pithy statements. Here are a couple:

Of those who indulge in self pity because of difficulties in their lives:
“Far worse things have happened to far better people.”

Of the need to cultivate contentment in our work:
“If you cannot do what you like, then you must learn to like what you do.”

Ah, contentment. Easier said than done. A few years ago I read a book by the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. It’s very dense and written in outline form with lots of points and sub-points – not the kind of book you curl up in your chair with on a rainy day with a cup of hot chocolate. It was slow going, but worth the effort. I decided to memorize his definition of Christian contentment thinking it would be a profitable thing to have tucked away in my mind. Now comes the test – do I still remember it? Drum roll please…

“Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

Simple and very thorough. Then he spent the whole book in explanation of that. I’ve read the book twice now and I’ll probably return to it again. That Christian contentment is a jewel is beyond dispute. But why is it so rare? We are ever prone to complain. At least I am. It’s easy to criticize the Israelites when they fell into murmuring and complainting again and again while being rescued from slavery and being fed in the wilderness. But you know what? After 2 or 3 days of nothing but manna, I think I would have started complaining, too. True, enduring and persevering contentment is rare, indeed. I give you permission to remind me about that definition of contentment the next time you hear me complaining.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning, but definitely without complaining about it.