This already sounds cliche in my head, but if you want to know one of the biggest things that I have learned over these past 9 months is contentment. But I guess it isn’t really cliche if Paul said the same thing in his letter to the church at Philippi— “10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippines 4:10-13)
I am not in any way a master of contentment and often times have to be still enough to remember to be content, but the people I’ve met and the circumstances I’ve seen have been the biggest teacher of this subject.
Our friend here in the Philippines, Rona, is the most amazing woman ever. A muslim-converted-Christian who is a midwife, a president of her community, a single mother, a nurse, a compassionate and God-fearing woman lives in a house smaller than my bedroom with her son and she is one of the most joyous women I have ever come across. In Botswana, people lived in mud huts in the bush, but the kids were still creative and happy and loving life living on the Delta. In Haiti, the community was the most poverty-stricken I have ever seen, ridden with addiction, but there was still hope, the kids still had dreams and were content with the little that they did have. In the DR, we met some women who were happy to be alive, grateful for every breath. South Africa, I met some content humans, like Kamo, even though they lived in the most corrupt place in the whole country.
But the thing is, saying this is the most gentle way possible, these people don’t know what it is like to have abundance and plenty to the extent of Americans. Its the sad reality of third world countries, and also true for some people in first world countries.
Not saying I know what it is like to have all the riches of the world and also what it is like to live in deep poverty, but I have witnessed abundance and need more than many other people I know thanks to these past 9 months. And I mean real need, like children who are at the feedings who eat like they might not eat again for a few days, because truth is that some of them probably won’t.
But I think that is one of the biggest problems in America, lack of contentment yields lack of joy or happiness. If you aren’t content with what you have, how can you be happy, joyous or ecstatic about what you have or get? James says to consider it ALL joy (see James 1:2). This is also one of my biggest fears in going home: that I will lose this lesson of contentment and go back to wanting the bigger and the better as soon as it is offered to me, because that isn’t what life is about. This life isn’t about wanting the newest iPhone or the in-season clothes or the most appealing Instagram feed. Its about being content with what you have through the Lord’s strength.
I think this is also one of the biggest problems in the world. Even though I have met plenty of people who are content and happy in these developing countries, people still wish they had more everywhere we have gone. Its like dissatisfaction is a worldly disease that has been around since the garden of eden, when Adam and eve were offered every tree in the world but wanted to eat from the one that they weren’t allowed to because they wanted more and thought they could lord their lives.
And honestly, how entitled of me to be wanting more when I already have too much, especially in relation to what I have seen this year.
I wish I had a heartbreaking, life-giving, astounding story to give to you all as one time I learned contentment because I’m sure that would be a lot more exiting to read, but its more of a compilation of the exciting and heartbreaking and mundane that I have seen on the Race that have come down to this.
I want to be like Paul and be ok with being low or high or in need or in plenty. I want to live a life where I am unconcerned with what I don’t have; being countercultural. I also could not have learned this had I stayed back from the Race, I could’ve have learned it to an extent but i wouldn’t have really learned what it was like to have need and hunger to the extent Paul is talking about. All I have to say is: get. out. of. your. comfort. zone.
