Devotion

Being Joyful

Far too often, I fear, we miss the beauty and joy that life has to offer because we’re too busy. Or we have our minds set on something else in the future. As Pearl Buck found: “Many people lose these small joys in the hope for the big happiness.”

In our world, contentment is a strange street vendor, roaming, looking for a home, but rarely finding an open door. This old salesman moves slowly from house to house, tapping on windows, knocking on doors, offering his goods: an hour of peace, a smile of acceptance, a sigh of relief. But his goods are rarely taken. We are too busy to be content, which is crazy since the reason we push ourselves today is because we think it will make us content tomorrow. “Not now, thank you. I’ve too much to do,” we say. “Too many marks to be made, too many achievements to be achieved, too many dollars to be saved. And besides, if I’m content, someone might think I’ve lost my ambition.”

So the street vendor named Contentment moves on. When I asked him why so few welcomed him into their homes, his answer left me convicted. “I charge a high price, you know. My fee is steep. I ask people to trade in their schedules, frustrations, and anxieties. I demand that they put a torch to their fourteen-hour days and sleepless nights. You’d think I’d have more buyers.” He scratched his beard, then added thoughtfully, “But people seem strangely proud of their ulcers and headaches.” – Max Lucado

Contentment is being joyful despite whatever is happening. Sometimes that just means to stop and smell and roses. But true contentment can only come from one source, Jesus.

Paul was probably the person in the Bible who had the least logical reasoning to be content. He was in constant hunger while locked up in jail, yet he still managed to conclude this in Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT): “I was never in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Jesus, who gives me strength.”

Paul discovered that learning how to be content was the secret of joyful living! And it is Jesus who gives us the strength to do so.

Prayer: Dear Jesus. Thank you that You are our source of strength, contentment and hope. Thanks for your example and encouragement that demonstrates Your love to others. Please help us to be thankful and help those around us, finding contentment despite the circumstances around us.

Jason Kupke

Chaplain