on contentment...

​We seem always to want something we don’t have.  We endlessly strive for something more.  To be “content” is a dying art, practiced by a dwindling few.  We are influenced by television, by our friends, by our own unrealistic dreams, to seek something more.  Jesus had something to say about that, in what is perhaps his most widely-recognized teaching, the Sermon on the Mount:
 
"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to God than birds...What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way God works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how God works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met." --Matthew 6:25-33, The Message