Contentment is a Faraway Dream
Contentment in first world countries can often seem like a faraway dream. If you are content, you have unlocked a secret that few know about, and if you are discontent, you are one of many. Realizing that you don’t have what you want is an accepted part of life.
It’s easier to complain about circumstances than to find the inner peace needed to accept our situation with gratitude. Complaining provides an immediate outlet, while gratitude requires us to slow down and be present. Yet this presence is exactly what I think we all intuitively know we should do. We know deep down that complaining is not good for us, and more than that, it’s not getting us anywhere. Take a look at what the writer of Ecclesiastes has to say about our time here on Earth:
“I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in their toil – this is the gift of God.” (3:12-13)
Think about the two words I bolded: nothing better. There is nothing better than to live life! This is hundreds of years before we had many of the things we claim have made our lives so much better today: air conditioning, cars, computers, etc. The gift of God is for us to enjoy our food, our work, and our lives.
Take one aspect of our lives: food. I was listening to a podcast the other day where the host was talking about how the question of “what should I eat today?” is a novel question. Most generations of human beings have not had to ask that, because what they ate was what they hunted or what they had available to them in their village. There was no deliberation on what foods and drinks they could consume, or what style of cuisine they were in the mood for. The same goes for many third-world countries today, which have less access to varieties of food. They have mostly the same foods, day after day, year after year. It’s an entirely new problem, and that perspective should encourage our gratefulness.
You could say the same about clothes or jobs or picking a spouse. The variety of choices we have today is infinite and incredibly diverse, and while that can be a strength, it has its downsides, too. To the writer of Ecclesiastes, it does not matter, because our appreciation for life is still in the most basic elements of our work, our food, and our lives. What we are doing right now is enough. There is nothing beyond the horizon that will add to our contentment. We have everything we need right now; it’s only a matter of whether we can thank God for it and enjoy it while we can.
