Wednesday 15 July 2015

Psalm: Psalm 42

Background

We live in an age of discontent, though I'm not sure really ifit wasn't ever thus. I have lost count of how many diets I havebeen on, how many times I have bought into the lie that readingthis book would make me smarter, that using this new product wouldmake me more beautiful. Because, the advertisers tell me, 'I'mworth it.'

For all the benefits it gives its members, a capitalist societylike ours breeds discontent as a way of keeping the money incirculation. The more we become aware of our failings andinadequacies, the more we try to plug the gaps with stuff, to buildour security - and even our identities - on what we own. Societytells us that to be content with one's lot is to stand still, tostop striving to have or be something better, somehow to settle forless.

And yet in today's passage the author speaks of contentment asthe beginning of our striving - though it's a striving of a verydifferent nature from what we might be used to. He is in no doubtthat earning a lot of money is hard work, but that it inevitablybrings you back to where you began - discontent. Instead, he says,if we begin from a place of true contentment - finding our identityand security in Christ - we are set free to strive for the thingsthat really matter and that will never disappoint: righteousness,godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. In chasing afterthese things we are not seeking to fill a void or to fix ourselves,but simply to allow God's love for us to overflow into ourworld.

To Ponder

• What makes you feel content with life? What can you livewithout?

• What are you striving for? Why?