Thanksgiving week is here! You might not know it if you go into stores, as they seem to be announcing Christmas in full volume, but in a mere two days, we celebrate our national day of Thanksgiving in this nation. And the truth is, we have much to be thankful for. But it also seems that we far too often forget to be thankful, and instead focus on what is lacking or missing in life.
I'm going to admit that there are times when I find it difficult to be content in life. That's a problem. You see, God has given me so much, and I see that every day. In so many ways, God has actually given me too much. I see it in the unpacked boxes sitting in the basement. I see it in the kitchen items that sit in cabinets unused, because I got them for a specific purpose, but that purpose doesn't arise too frequently. I see it in the many books on my bookshelf that haven't been opened for years, simply because I read them once, but don't have the time to go back to revisit them.
Maybe, just maybe, God has given me too much. Or maybe, just maybe, I wasn't content at the time, thinking that some "thing" could bring that contentment. But it has been simply amazing how often I have gotten that "thing" that I just needed to bring contentment to my life, but it didn't live up to my expectations. So I moved on to the next thing, thinking that it might bring contentment. And on, and on, and on again.
Maybe in some ways I'm starting to recognize what King Solomon knew when he sat down to write the book of the Bible called Ecclesiastes. It's just stuff. It can't bring contentment. It can't bring happiness. It just exists. And sometimes, the more God gives the ability to have "stuff", the less content we find ourselves.
Recently my wife and I were talking about making Christmas lists. It was a strange conversation. Strange, because both of us realized that we really didn't want more stuff. Truthfully, even our little girl doesn't need more stuff. But we, as people, are so oriented toward stuff that we just know parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the like will want to find out what stuff we want. And that conversation opened our eyes a bit, to recognize that stuff isn't really what we want.
Being content isn't easy, and in fact, we never get there in this life. There's always something else to have. There are always changes to life that we want to make it better or easier. But every once in a while, God flashes that momentary glimpse into His desire and design for our lives. That's when we recognize contentment for what it is. My prayer is that we all get more of those glimpses as we prepare to celebrate a day of giving thanks.
I'm going to admit that there are times when I find it difficult to be content in life. That's a problem. You see, God has given me so much, and I see that every day. In so many ways, God has actually given me too much. I see it in the unpacked boxes sitting in the basement. I see it in the kitchen items that sit in cabinets unused, because I got them for a specific purpose, but that purpose doesn't arise too frequently. I see it in the many books on my bookshelf that haven't been opened for years, simply because I read them once, but don't have the time to go back to revisit them.
Maybe, just maybe, God has given me too much. Or maybe, just maybe, I wasn't content at the time, thinking that some "thing" could bring that contentment. But it has been simply amazing how often I have gotten that "thing" that I just needed to bring contentment to my life, but it didn't live up to my expectations. So I moved on to the next thing, thinking that it might bring contentment. And on, and on, and on again.
Maybe in some ways I'm starting to recognize what King Solomon knew when he sat down to write the book of the Bible called Ecclesiastes. It's just stuff. It can't bring contentment. It can't bring happiness. It just exists. And sometimes, the more God gives the ability to have "stuff", the less content we find ourselves.
Recently my wife and I were talking about making Christmas lists. It was a strange conversation. Strange, because both of us realized that we really didn't want more stuff. Truthfully, even our little girl doesn't need more stuff. But we, as people, are so oriented toward stuff that we just know parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the like will want to find out what stuff we want. And that conversation opened our eyes a bit, to recognize that stuff isn't really what we want.
Being content isn't easy, and in fact, we never get there in this life. There's always something else to have. There are always changes to life that we want to make it better or easier. But every once in a while, God flashes that momentary glimpse into His desire and design for our lives. That's when we recognize contentment for what it is. My prayer is that we all get more of those glimpses as we prepare to celebrate a day of giving thanks.
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