Today I taught my Saddleback Kids about the
temptation of Jesus, and I also had the opportunity to preach this lesson to myself:
But this is hard.
My favorite author Dallas Willard puts the struggle this way: “Almost all of us are acutely aware of how the incessant clamorings of our bodies defeat our intentions to ‘be spiritual’”.
But what does it mean to be truly content?
Today this human question makes sense to me in a new way, and I have a bit more hope about the answer than I did the day before.
And so I am here cooking dinner and contemplating this with a heart full of gratitude on a Sunday evening.
I am designed to desire contentment,
and it can be found in the margin of Grace.
But this is hard.
My favorite author Dallas Willard puts the struggle this way: “Almost all of us are acutely aware of how the incessant clamorings of our bodies defeat our intentions to ‘be spiritual’”.
But what does it mean to be truly content?
Today this human question makes sense to me in a new way, and I have a bit more hope about the answer than I did the day before.
And so I am here cooking dinner and contemplating this with a heart full of gratitude on a Sunday evening.
Contentment is as much a spiritual posture as it is a
physical discipline. It means coming before God as an empty vessel and
receiving His declaration that we are beautifully made and eternally loved even
if we remain empty forever- and THEN allowing Him to fill us up with whatever
He deems best.
Contentment requires deep trust, both in ourselves as we remain
vulnerable and open, and in our God as He determines what to pour into our
lives as He meets our needs.
We were all born brimming with desire- we are creatures of
deep need and longing, filled with a gaping emptiness that we ourselves cannot
fill. From birth we are screaming for fulfillment and are helpless to achieve
it on our own- no, we must look to our Provider as he meets our needs through
His created things.
We desire to desire.
And then we want our desires to be met quickly. And then we desire to desire again.
It is a vicious cycle.
BUT we WERE designed to desire- except in a whole and healthy Kingdom, not in this broken wounded one full of scarcity and fear.
It is a vicious cycle.
BUT we WERE designed to desire- except in a whole and healthy Kingdom, not in this broken wounded one full of scarcity and fear.
So we must lean into the vulnerability of desire and abide in
the full awareness of the deep hunger in our souls.
This week we gathered as a church family to hear about
“Learning To Be Content”, part four of the Living
on a Margin series.
Though this week’s topic might seems to be surface level, in actuality it plumbs down into the depths of our beings and can reveal some critical components about who we are and where we are going, both as individuals and as a human race.
Though this week’s topic might seems to be surface level, in actuality it plumbs down into the depths of our beings and can reveal some critical components about who we are and where we are going, both as individuals and as a human race.
To learn to be content is to begin the practice of soul care.
Because our souls are crying out for permission to abide
with God in this, the present moment, without rushing on in haste for
satisfaction of something more, which in actuality is something less.
To be discontent is
to disparage the value of who you have already become.
As Pastor Dave Page said on Sunday, “Contentment is margin
for your soul.” Indeed, it is the place where we sit with our needs without
pushing them away or strangling them close- resting in the desire without
squelching it.
Each week I have the joy of teaching elementary students about
Jesus- this week we covered the topic of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the
wilderness. I would like to correlate what Pastor Page said about contentment
with what I taught my Saddleback Kids about the temptation of Jesus. I think it
pieces together nicely, and I thank the Spirit for the correlating of these
different ideas.
Pastor Dave gave three truths about contentment which line
up quite nicely with the three tests that Christ experienced in my Sunday
school lesson from Matthew 4:1-13.
~*~
IDEA ONE:
One of the points on our Sunday morning outline was the idea
that “Contentment isn’t found in what
happens to me”.
Perhaps I can rephrase this to fit my own flawed thinking,
the seed of so many of my mistakes-
LIE #1: I AM WHAT
I DO.
This misconception will lead to a great deal of discontent
in the lives of all of us, and it is a lie that most people, including myself,
believe on a regular basis. To wage war against this tragedy we must wield our
contentment with mindfulness and gratitude for each present moment.
We must fight against the lie that we are what we do, whether that action is good or bad.
As the adults were learning this in the auditorium, here is
what I was learning with my Saddleback Kids-
4 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan
River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,[a] 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate
nothing all that time and became very hungry.
3 Then the devil said to
him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
Can’t you hear the voice of the enemy here?
Make bread, Jesus, you need to do something or you will die! God cannot provide!
Make bread, Jesus, you need to do something or you will die! God cannot provide!
That voice tells us to be discontented with our circumstances, DO SOMETHING, take action to fix
the problem, the contentment will be found within our abilities as an
individual apart from God. You must react NOW.
This voice gets me in trouble.
This voice gets me in trouble.
I have reacted in foolish ways to what I thought I needed to do. I believed that I needed to perform for love.
This is why Jesus said NO, I am not “what I do”, because the
human body needs to rely on God in order to nourish the soul.
No, I am not what I do, because my identity and worth as a child of God is not founded on my actions (thank God!) but upon His.
No, I am not what I do, because my identity and worth as a child of God is not founded on my actions (thank God!) but upon His.
No, I am not what I do, and if I believe that, I will always
be discontented, because I will always fall short.
If I am what I do, then I am a sinner, a failure, a reject,
a prodigal, homeless, churchless, an orphan.
But this is not true of me, because-
Contentment
is found
in
what He lovingly does
to
nourish my faith
in
the margins of each day.
Thank you Jesus.
~*~
IDEA TWO:
We also heard this
statement from the pulpit on Sunday- “Contentment
isn’t found in what I have.”
Put another way-
Lie #2: I AM WHAT
I HAVE.
And my Saddleback kids and I learned the next part of the
story from Luke-
5 Then the devil took him
up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 “I will give you the
glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they
are mine to give to anyone I please. 7 I will
give it all to you if you will worship me.”
8 Jesus replied, “The
Scriptures say,
Do you recognize the voice of the enemy on this one?
You are what you have. Collect as much as you can, keep a
list, make a chart, compare yourself.
Keep track, hold on to your hurts because
they define you, possess and own every offense done to you because it empowers
you. If you identify yourself with what you have then you will be abundant with
wealth, riches, power, safety.
This is a scarcity mindset- keep everything for yourself,
because there is not enough to go around.
No, friends, this is not the Kingdom economy. I have learned
the hard way (and continue to learn) that the Kingdom currency has turned the
competition of the world upside down.
There is no scarcity in Jesus, only abundance.
If I am what I have, then I am in great trouble because I
have regret, grief, shame, fear, anxiety, hurts, grievances, grudges, and
offense, just to name a few. I could never be content with this lot. When I
identity myself with the feelings and thoughts that I have, I identify myself with internal chaos and rampant
discontentment.
Alternately, when I judge the value of my person based on my
material possessions, then the value of my life is time-stamped and perishable
at best, old and useless at its worst, and is always based on an endless desire
for more, more, more.
Scarcity is the death of contentment.
I am surely glad to know that I am not what I have. Rather-
Contentment
is found
in
what He provides
to
grow my trust in Him
in
the margins of every hour.
Thank you Jesus.
~*~
Finally, the greatest temptation of all is presented to us.
Church, we must hear this one for all it’s worth, because to miss this is to
fail to heed a major warning.
IDEA THREE:
This is the hardest lesson of all, the one we have all
believed again and again. It’s the area of desire which is the most tempting,
which is why Satan saved the best for last with Jesus.
It is the lie that we need the approval of others to be
called a child of God.
It’s the lie that says we are only worthy of love and
belonging if we are liked by everyone around us.
It’s the lie that says we might not be safe to belong in
this world as we truly are.
LIE #3: I AM WHAT
PEOPLE SAY ABOUT ME.
Oh this one is powerful, dreadfully so. Which is why we were
reminded by our teaching Pastor on Sunday- “Contentment
isn’t found in comparing myself with others.”
We are all bent towards a desire for validation from other
humans- it is perhaps one of our greatest weaknesses. We want to be well liked,
well respected, spoken highly of. When we are not, what are we?
We desire prestige, respect, admiration. We are not content
if we don’t have it.
We want to know that when we jump, we will be caught and
raised up, lifted high by the praises of our peers, friends, church and family.
We want to know that
we are safe to belong, and that if we fall our community will be there to catch
us.
But I know this is not always the
case, and from Jesus’ example we can all see how it is dangerous to make a
blind leap onto the opinions of others-
9 Then
the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said,
“If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the
Scriptures say,
‘He will order his angels to
protect and guard you.
11 And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’[d]”
11 And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’[d]”
Instead of looking to people for validation, we are called
by God to look to Him and Him alone. All else is secondary.
But we desire human praises, which is why we become
co-dependent, anxious and fearful of rejection.
It hurts to be let down, and it hurts to let down others. I
have experienced both, very deeply. Which is why I can appreciate this final
temptation of Jesus on a personal level.
Jump and test if they will catch you.
What happens when they don’t?
You are wounded deeply and you will never be the same.
So we must get up, regroup, attend therapy and hear what God
is teaching us-
Contentment
is found
in
what He says about me
in
the margins of each moment.
Thank you Jesus.
Yes, teaching my Saddleback Kids about the temptation of Jesus was really about preaching a lesson to myself, a lesson which was reinforced by the Sunday sermon later that morning.
~*~
Yes, teaching my Saddleback Kids about the temptation of Jesus was really about preaching a lesson to myself, a lesson which was reinforced by the Sunday sermon later that morning.
And it is a good lesson to be reminded of, because
discontent is a human problem and a human being who lives a contented life is a
rare thing indeed.
The enemy wants for nothing more than to keep us restless,
unhappy, unsatisfied and looking in the wrong places for answers. This has been
the war tactic for ages.
13 When
the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity
came.
Because rest assured, my friends, the feelings of discontent
will come. We will desire things we think we need, things which we mistakenly
assume shape our identity: to HAVE, to DO, to BE in ways that do not involve
the Kingdom economy of our God.
But God is in the business of refining our desires to make
them look like His- holy and good and blessed, nourishing and full of freedom
to claim our true identity as a child of the King.
Remember, His Kingdom is upside-down community, and the only
thing you have for sure is Him, the only thing you do is receive His love, and
the only thing spoken over you is beloved.
If you recognize any of my ideas here from the vastly
underrated, late, great Henri Nouwen, that’s because he has been my inspiration
for much of my thought process these past few months. In his beautiful sermon
called “The Life Of The Beloved”, Nouwen teaches lessons about contentment
through the same scripture I shared with you here.
Can we be content with the love of our Creator? If all we
have is Jesus, is that enough? Even if we are alone in our contentment sometimes?
If He said you are worth dying and rising for, what does
that mean for your identity?
We don’t need to HAVE, to DO, or to BE anything before the
throne of God in order to belong and to be loved. We simply need to be content
with His forgiveness and His grace.
Contentment is a process and a journey, and so I have a very
long road ahead of me. But if we keep our eyes set firmly on Him and submerge
ourselves in His Word, then we will come out victorious because God is in the
business of redeeming our desires so that He can fulfill them with His love.
May you go into your day with an awareness that God is
working in the margins to take action for you, to provide for you, and to speak
words of adoration over you.
Meet Him in the margin and surrender your desires to Him
while they still feel unmet, because He welcomes us just as we are, here and
now.
Contentment is a spiritual posture- it means coming before
God as an empty vessel and receiving His declaration that we are beautifully
made and eternally loved even if we remain empty forever- and THEN allowing Him
to fill us up with whatever He deems best.
Contentment requires deep trust, both in ourselves as we
remain vulnerable and open, and in our God as He determines what is best to
pour into our lives as He meets our needs.
What do you desire? Though your desires might seem to be
surface level, in actuality they plumb down into the depths of your being and
can reveal some critical components about who you are and where you are going,
both as an individual and within your greater community.
To learn to be content is to begin the practice of soul care. So it is here in the margin
of your daily activity that you will find true contentment and lasting
fulfillment, even in the midst of momentary or even prolonged dissatisfaction.
Be blessed, Saddleback family. May the incessant clamorings
of our minds and bodies propel us to rest more deeply in His arms.
I love you, church, and I thank God for you.
I am so thankful that Jesus is using you to teach me these
important lessons.
May we grow together in the margin of His Grace, because we are designed to desire contentment in Him, and the sooner we acknowledge this the closer we move towards victory.
With Gratitude~
Rebecca
~*~
To read my story or
view my creative writing,
