I’ve always loved tools – anything that enables me to accomplish things better. I don’t believe you can have too many knives, flashlights, watches or power tools. People that know me today know that chances are good that I’ll have any woodworking tool they might need.
In the summer of ’82, that collection was in its infancy. Kasie and I had just started making payments on our first “home”. It was the 14′ by 80′ home of the mobile-type. The kind that came with wheels.
Dad and I were working on the underpinning – the skirt that extended from the bottom of the mobile home frame to the ground. We had built a wooden frame and were screwing metal siding to it.
Not many years before, the proper way to attach the siding would have been to use a drill motor to make a hole through the siding into the wood, and install a screw with a screw driver.
But tools were evolving. Dad had one of the new innovations in home handyman technology – a cordless drill, and I had discovered self-taping screws. Each one had drill point built into it, so you drilled the hole as you installed it.
Automated efficiency.
Now while this beat the heck out of the old way, there was one problem. The battery didn’t last long. And, it took forever to recharge.
Fortunately, I also had availed myself of recent technological advances. I owned a Craftsman variable-speed, reversing drill. While the drills that came before it only made holes, this one did much more. Now, it could drive screws — and remove them. The main drawback was that it had to be plugged in. But within a couple of screws this concern vanished, because with the cord came the power to drive screws almost instantly.
Suddenly, the allure of the cordless drill vaporized. Sure, it was better than drilling a hole, and then driving the screws with elbow grease, but, compared to the corded drill, it was slow, tedious and inefficient.
I remember Dad commenting at the time about how quickly our perspective had shifted. Thirty years later I can still hear his words, and they are no less applicable today.
How quickly we become discontent.
I’m tempted to blame it on our modern times. On the mass communication which exposes us to a whole world of cool things we wouldn’t know of otherwise. On the advertising industry, whose express purpose is to incite our discontentment.
But the problem is not new. It was a problem in the churches of the 1st Century (1 Timothy 6:6-8; Philippians 4:22-23; Hebrews 13:5-6).
Some observations from these passages:
1 Timothy 6:6-8 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.
- Contrary to our persistent desire for more, the advantages of contentment, when it accompanies godliness, are significant.
- The standard against which we measure our contentment should be food and clothing. In previous articles we have seen that we are dependent and shameful beings. The food supplies our dependence, and the clothing covers our nakedness – our shame. With those bases covered, we should be content.
Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
- Contentment is an acquired state. It did not come naturally, even for Paul. He had to learn it.
- Contentment is not based on our circumstances. Paul had learned to be content, even when deprived of food, a legitimate, basic need.
- Not only did Paul know how to be content when in need, he also knew how to be content in prosperity. Contentment when you can afford more may be more difficult than contentment when you lack means.
Hebrews 13:5-6 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,” so that we confidently say,
“THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID.
WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?”
- Contentment involves the shifting of our confidence from money to God.
- Contentment is grounded in God’s personal presence. We are to be content simply because God is with us.
With these observations, we advance the argument of last week’s article.
There, we argued that saving is not one God’s priorities for our management of the possessions entrusted to us. In other words, saving is not, biblically speaking, an “ought.”
Now we are moving beyond that.
Even acknowledging that saving isn’t an “ought,” we can still consider it a “good thing.” We can still see a reserve fund as our hope for dealing with future uncertainties.
If that is the case – if we must have savings to be at peace about the future, our contentment is not based on the assurance of His personal presence, but on the money we have saved. Our hope is not in God, it is in our savings.
Consider Paul’s instructions on the matter to the church of Ephesus in 1 Timothy 6:17 –
Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
There is nothing wrong with having a surplus. But if we have such a surplus, it is not to be our source of hope. Those riches are not reliable. By contrast, God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy is totally reliable.
This shift brings with it, contentment. Regardless of our circumstances, if our hope is in Him, we will be content.
Should He choose to provide abundantly, our contentment will leave us with a surplus. But that abundance will be the consequence of contentment, not reliance on uncertain riches. Such a surplus may indeed supply our future need, or it could go toward one of the other items on God’s agenda.
On the other hand, if God chooses not to provide abundantly, we are still ok, because like Paul, we have learned to be content, even in affliction and need. We have Him, and He is enough.
And beyond the peace that it brings, this contentment enables us to focus our attention on the remaining three priorities we have identified that should guide us in our management of all God has entrusted to us.