The Folly of Discontentment

Discontentment first masquerades as aspiration. You will ask yourself, “Isn’t it a good thing to think about and plan for my future?” You will spend hours imagining the life you want and comparing that against the life that you have. You will come to resent the people around you who have the life you think you deserve. The more time you spend building your imaginary kingdom, the more your sufficient cottage will feel like squalor. You will live out your life as a bitter person who is neither content with what you have, nor able to achieve what you imagined.

Discontentment first masquerades as aspiration. This is the case with many sins. At first, it seems like a good thing. The problem with aspiration is that it takes place on two separate planes. There’s the physical plane and the spiritual plane. Anytime we concentrate on the world we loose sight of our position in God’s kingdom. Proverbs 10:28 says “The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectations of the wicked will perish.”  When we aspire to the role God has for us in His kingdom, we will find true contentment. It is when we aspire to a place in the world that we get into trouble.

You will ask yourself, “Isn’t it a good thing to think about and plan for my future?” Yes, it is. This is why we go to work every day, pay the electric bill, pay the car insurance, pay the mortgage and so on and so forth. We have a long list of responsibilities that exist for the sole purpose of ensuring our well-being beyond this moment.  However, when you try to find verses about planning for the future, you come across verses like Jeremiah 29:11-“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” And verses like Philippians 1:6- “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Or Proverbs 19:20-21- “Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. Many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” The common thread that is weaved through scripture on the future is that God is the one with a plan. Worry about today’s responsibilities and learn to be submissive to God’s plan.

You will spend hours imagining the life you want and comparing that against the life that you have. This drives home the idea of concentrating on the world instead of the Kingdom of God. Colossians 3:2 instructs us to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.” Learn to be grateful for the life you have as you look forward to your eternity with God. Our time here on earth is just a tiny fraction of our existence.

You will come to resent the people around you who have the life you think you deserve. There are two issues with this mindset. First, you resent the people who are doing well. The Bible clearly states that coveting your neighbor’s things is wrong. It’s one of the ten commandments. Resenting someone because of his success is just another level of coveting. The second issue is that you think you deserve what someone else has. What we deserve in this life is irrelevant, especially when compared against what we deserve in the next. Romans 6:23 tells us that “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We deserve eternal death. Try to remember that when you’re thinking about what you think you deserve in this world.

The more time you spend building your imaginary kingdom, the more your sufficient cottage will feel like squalor. The thing about our imagination is that it is a powerful thing. Studies have shown that there is little difference in our minds between experiencing something and imagining that same thing. We can get all the same mental rewards from imagining an experience that we get from the experience itself. Imagining the life you want is like going on a vacation and then having to come home to reality every day. This mental roller coaster is a great way to hardwire discontentment and disappointment into your mind. Setting up a constant comparison between what you want and what you have is folly. Instead, concentrate on the intangibles that you can truly call your own. Concentrate on the love you have for your friends and family as you reflect the love God has for you. Live in the joy of your salvation as you seek to share that joy with others. Reflect on the grace of God as you learn to extend that same grace to your children. These intangibles exist regardless of your earthly environment because they are rooted in Heaven.

You will live out your life as a bitter person who is neither content with what you have, nor able to achieve what you imagined. This is the bottom line with discontentment. It seeps into your pores and stains your entire person. Hebrews 13:5 says “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Understand that God is far more concerned with your position in His kingdom than your position in the world. First Timothy 6:6-7 says “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.”