Be Content in All Things

The Apostle Paul tells us to be content with what the Lord has provided for us. Paul writes that he knows what it is to be content. He knew contentment in whatever he had whether he hungered or whether he was full. From scripture we also know that Paul was beaten and imprisoned for his faith in Jesus Christ. Five times he was beaten with 39 stripes, once with rods, and once he was stoned. He goes onto to write that he was weary and exhausted, hungry and thirsty, cold, naked and fasting. In perils in the sea, in the city, in perils among false brethren, and with Gentiles, in the wilderness, in the water, and with robbers, and his own Jewish countrymen. (2Corinthians 11:24-27) Still Paul was content with his situation. Which one of us would have been?
I don’t own a car, so my daughter and I ride the bus all over town whenever we cannot get a ride to our destination. (I don’t have the proper credit to purchase a car.) In my hometown, which is Fresno it gets pretty hot in the summer, upwards of 107. At times we catch two busses. Some busses have the luxury of passing every 15 minutes, others only every 30 minutes. On the weekends its every 30 minutes, and once every hour. So it is quite an inconvenience. I owned a car only once, and that was because my older brother purchased it for $1,900. It was a 1990 Nissan Stanza that worked exactly one year.(2003-2004)
Paul writes be content with the bus so to speak. Be happy you have a convenient, inexpensive form of transportation. “I walked most of the time,” he probably would have told me.
Paul had so many trials, there was the bit about the thorn in the flesh. (2 Corinthians 12:7) He entreated the Lord three times to take it away. But the Lord answered," My grace is sufficient for you, my stength is made perfect in weakness." (2Cortinthians 12:9)
My thorns, I have quite a few of them. One of the thorns that has stabbed me, and has cleaved to me is loneliness. I have never been married. I, like Paul prayed about my situation, and God did not answer me as I would have liked. For anyone who has experienced this particular type of loneliness, it hurts when the natural tendency is to be apart of someone else. Who knows the reasons why God does not answer seemingly reasonable prayers? He leaves the thorn, and tells us as he told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”
So I have raised my child as a single parent. Her father has been God. Paul would say, “I should still be content, even if I do not have the things I think I need.” According to church historians, Paul may have been married at one point in his life, then been widowed. But at the time he wrote about the thorn I don’t believe so. He must have needed the tenderness of a woman. But then again, he spoke of the gift of singleness. Maybe he had it. Maybe I have some form of it, without realizing. Maybe the pangs of loneliness would bite deeper without God’s grace. Who knows?
I have done most of my novel writing out of loneliness. Some of my most elaborate characterizations have been born from it. I have written about Christopher to escape it. He has been my strategem against it. Again Paul writes, “Be content.”
My daughter was diagnosed with pediatric bi-polar disorder at age 9. She has been on meds since she was 7. My child, though beautiful has been a challenge. Despite her illness, I know she is a blessing from the Lord. When I let the Holy Spirit assuage itself in me, I feel a joy so tangible it cannot be described. My heart cannot contain itself in this earthly vessel, I feel love spill out of me, and I know this is only a grain of God’s love, but it is vast and beautiful. I weep from its sheer depth, and I am astounded by its profundity. This is only a drop of water from the ocean of God’s love, but oh how rich it has been. Be content.
At these inexpressible, unutterable moments when I let God embrace my soul the heat is only a brief moment in the context of who God is. When my daughter’s anger is inconsolable, it has been my pleasure to love her. This too is God’s grace.
I have tasted God’s gracious nature, and I have felt His kindness upon me, and I have personally experienced the boundless love of God.
God has taught me to be content. “My grace is sufficient for you.”

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