Do you ever think about where contentment comes from?

Better yet, do you ever think about contentment itself?

I’m not much of a thinker when it comes to contentment. Typically, I avoid thinking about it because it’s really convicting. If I’m honest, I’m not a very content person. More often than not, I’m chasing the next best thing. It’s one of my greatest weaknesses. When I read this little interaction between Jesus and the people he fed with the loaves and fish, I resonate with them…

So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:30-40, NIV

A note: This conversation is actually quite long and spans over 34 verses! To do it justice, I’m going to reflect on it in chunks over multiple posts. This is the second part of the conversation. The first part is here: What Spoils? Rethinking Desire and Eternal Life

The audacity of these people asking for a sign! What do you mean you need a sign? The guy just fed some 20,000 people with five loaves and two fish. I think they might be responding to Jesus chastising them for chasing their full bellies instead of coming to him because they saw something miraculous. So, they say, “fine, show us a sign then!”

I’m just like them.

God provides, and I want more. It’s as if nothing is ever enough. I’m never content.

As I think about this lack of contentment, I wonder if it’s due to something similar to the people in this story. Do I really understand that material things will never truly satisfy me? Food, drink, stuff—all of these will eventually leave me wanting more. As I get more, it satisfies less.

C.S. Lewis writes in The Weight of Glory:

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

He gets to the heart of it, I think. My inability to be content is not rooted in too much desire, but in a desire that is too weak, in that I don’t desire the better things. Jesus offers eternal life; we learn in John 17 that eternal life is to know God and Christ. I think the pursuit of this knowing is what ultimately will build in me a greater sense of contentment.

There is no end to the depths of Jesus, for he is eternal.

So, here I am, wrestling.

I wish I could tell you three steps to contentment or something equally simple. But, I don’t think there is anything that easy. It requires faithful perseverance in growing our relationship with God in Christ. It’s seeking to do his will, each and every day. What is that will? I think it can be most easily summarized in pursuing the fruit of the Spirit as outlined by Paul in Galatians 5:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Galatians 5:22-26, NIV

I often quote the fruit, but today it really struck me that Paul connects the pursuit of this fruit with the crucifying of the flesh with its passions and desires and ties that with envy. So, again, this is all tied to growing in contentment through keeping in step with the Spirit.

I hope that I can be a person who pursues these deeper desires. For in doing so, I might begin to experience a taste of the eternal right now.