Defined By Contentment

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.

Philippians 4:11

Two teardrops were floating down the river of life. One teardrop asked the other, “Who are you?” The second teardrop replied, “I am a teardrop from a girl who loved a man and lost him. But who are you?” The first teardrop replied, “I am a teardrop from the girl who got him.”

That’s the way life goes, isn’t it? We cry over what we don’t have, not realizing we might have cried twice as hard had we gotten it. One of the reasons the apostle Paul lived a life characterized by such joy and gratitude was because he had learned the secret of being content. He was thankful for what he had and not sorry about what he didn’t have (Philippians 4:12).

Paul passed on that secret to his new converts. While living in the end of the age, he told the Corinthians to be content where they were. He urged them not to be envious and try to gain what they didn’t have, because “the time is short” (1 Corinthians 7:29). We live two thousand years later, so the time is shorter. Learn to be content where you are and with what—and who—you have.

People who are content live with a flexible cup; it expands or contracts to fit what God has supplied.