Not that in respect of want I say it, for I did learn in the things in which I am -- to be content — Philippian 4:11
Charles Spurgeon, in talking about Philippians 4:11, quotes a proverb: Ill weeds grow apace. Discontent is like dandelions. Complaints are like crabgrass. If we are going to have a decent lawn or garden, it requires cultivation. We have to work to have beautiful flowers or fruits and vegetables.
Paul says, I did learn ... to be content. To be content is to be contained. The desires of the contented are contained by what they already have. Not everyone is, or should be, content at the same level, but we can all learn to create boundaries for our desires and to live within the restraints of those fences.
I think it was probably back in the late 1800's that a young man left the Ozarks and made his way to Idaho. He herded sheep for several years and saved all he possibly could of his wages. He wore the same pair of shoes the entire time, wiring the soles to the uppers as the stitching gave way. According to the legend, when he returned from the West, he left what remained of that pair of shoes, and someone put them in the window of a shop. He used the money he had saved to buy a decent little farm. Then he bought another, and another. When he was asked if he planned to buy up all the farms around there, he replied, "No, I just want the ones that join me." He was not a contained man.
It is also evident that our frugal shepherd was discontent in the horizontal dimension. The same Paul who was contained in a Roman prison had, in the same letter to his friends in Philippi and only a few sentences prior, said:
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus -- (Philippians 3:12-14).Though always readily content with his material circumstances, Paul was never restrained in grasping for more of Christ. And Christ, it seems, had all of Paul.
Probably the best way to be content these days is not to watch television or listen to that old-fashioned thing out of which advertisements constantly pour. Nor should we read magazines, especially the paper copies – if they still exist. I remember when Outdoor Life and Sports Afield were thick with stories and tales of adventure in the woods and plains and upon the waters. The last I saw of them they held no more virtue than Bass Pro flyers. Not that it matters, for Jack O’Connor and Robert Ruark have gone on that last longhunt, and barbarians hold the presses.
I suspect those who have learned to contain their desires must wonder at the accumulation and consumption that grips the rest of us. We compete with one another to have the latest or the most expensive or the most unique. We want things because of surface qualities – colors or shapes or styles. We buy things because they are “on sale”. There is nothing evil or sinful about having things. There is nothing sinful in enjoying shopping or buying gear or tools. God knows I have a shelf full of knives that alone would damn me to hell if that were the case. God asks only that we not invest love in the material. Have things; use things; do not grasp for the material or strive for it.
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)
