Will I Ever Be Content?

Stepping into the role of Pastor is one of the worst decisions an American can make. When life’s goal is the pursuit of happiness, why are so many pastors depressed? And if pastors are depressed, you know the Church is too.

I believe the answer lies in how we define being content. Striving to be content is how Christians and pastors alike baptize the pursuit of happiness. When we preach, we tell the congregation, “You should be content in Jesus!” But as with many things, culture has defined being content a lot differently than the scriptures.

The disconnect between the two will cause a world of pain.

Being content in the world means achieving a state of personal blissful happiness. So when we tell people to be content in Jesus, what they hear is, “Jesus will make you happy.” This disillusionment settles in quickly—cue depression, sadness, re-evaluation of life choices, and so on.

For pastors, the stakes are even higher. The job is hard, happiness is often elusive, and if ‘being content’ is the goal, then we are failing at it.

A careful reading of the scriptures, though, will show a wide gap between how culture defines being content and how the scriptures do. Contentedness in the world is about personal fulfillment; contentedness in scripture is about Christ’s glory. On one spectrum, we have our personal fulfillment, and on the other, we have Christ’s glory.

Philippians 1:21:
"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

I will never be content in my pursuit of happiness
Christian living is a daily exercise in dying to self. When Jesus explains following Him to His disciples, He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Of course, if I practice this, I will never be content with the world's definition! They make no sense occupying the same room. Worldly contentment is self-fulfillment, and godly living is self-denial. How could they ever be compatible?

They can’t.

Am I then doomed to stay in a place of despair for as long as I am on Earth? Always reaching to enter a state of blissful happiness but never being able to achieve it as long as I obey God?

No!

Godly Contentment
Paul’s life was an utter misery by any of our standards. He had no long-term home, was consistently betrayed, beaten, imprisoned, and insulted. The culmination of his life was to testify in Rome, only to be killed for the faith he professed.

His testimony is full of failure, hardship, and pain. A mix of the enemy wanting to stop him, the human flesh trying to thwart him, and God allowing trials to humble him—it’s painful to even imagine how miserable his life must have been.

How in the world could he then speak of being content?

The key is the object of his joy: Jesus. Paul was not living for his own happiness or the pursuit of it. He was living for the glory of God. Joy was brought into his life, not by comfort and blissful happiness, but by obedience and God’s pleasure.

That is why in 2 Corinthians 12:10 Paul can say:
"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
God was glorified in his weakness, and for him, that was enough.

When we are too busy building and working for ourselves, we miss out on the freedom to be content in all things, good or bad. When Paul found Jesus, everything came into focus. The treasure, comfort, and pleasure of the world became dull. They were no longer the object of his affection. Instead, he says:
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.” (Philippians 3:8-9a)

He realizes he would never actually be happy with the things of the world. Worldly contentment was a promise that could never be cashed in on. The only place he found the ability to truly be content was in the satisfaction of knowing Jesus and losing all else.

I wonder what our lives would look like if we switched our definition of ‘being content’ from pursuing our ultimate comfort and happiness to instead pursuing God’s ultimate glory. Maybe we wouldn’t be as sad when life was harder than expected or when things didn’t go our way. Instead, our sadness and anger would be directed at sin, where it belongs.

Whether I die or live, have much or little, am whole or ill, am in hardship or ease, I am content for the sake of Christ. Knowing anything else has become dull when put in the light of His presence.