Contentment
My wife Allison and I have begun a project with the working title “Fighting for Contentment” - we’re developing our thoughts here in the hope of turning them into a book in the next year or so. You can help us by commenting on anything you find especially helpful, examples from your own life about learning contentment, or subjects or questions you’d love to see covered about the subject!
Introducing The Fight for Contentment
Note: For a quick health update from me (micro version: I seem to be doing better!), jump to the bottom.Thanks for reading Mere Immortals! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. As we’ve been through the last year, contentment is a theme that’s emerged consistently for Allison and me. She’s been…
Defining Contentment: Partial Pictures
If, as Mary Poppins says, the beginning is a good place to start, fighting for contentment should begin with defining it: what exactly are we fighting for?Thanks for reading Mere Immortals! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
What is Contentment?
In our last piece, we considered four partial pictures of contentment floating in the ether today: Contentment is a feeling of satisfaction. Contentment comes through self-acceptance. Contentment comes through rejecting attachments and desires. Contentment comes through self-mastery and self-sufficiency.
The Elements of Contentment, Part 1
As we saw in our last post, Christian contentment is joyful acceptance of God’s providence. When we’re fighting for contentment, that’s what we’re fighting for.Mere Immortals is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The Elements of Contentment, Part 2
In our last piece, we began discussing the elements of contentment – the “building blocks” of the joyful acceptance of God’s providence. In that one, we covered trust and satisfaction. Today, we’ll consider the element of submission.
The Elements of Contentment, Part 3
In our last two pieces, we considered how trust, satisfaction, and submission foster contentment in our souls; in this piece, we’ll finish with the final two elements of contentment.Mere Immortals is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
He Restores My Soul
What makes contentment worth fighting for? In his first letter to Timothy, Paul writes, “godliness with contentment is great gain” (6:6). For Christians, godliness is a nonnegotiable; but if we can experience contentment as well, it’s great gain – a blessing. We can feel that blessedness in David’s great psalm of contentment:
Feeling Well the Peace of God
In our last piece, we looked at how contentment is good for our own soul. Who wouldn’t want that? But Christians will want more: we aim to love God and love others in all we do. Is contentment just a self-serving pursuit?
Free to Love
“She's the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression.” – CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
The Tiger Next Door
I wake at 3 a.m. My mind is cycling through my responsibilities for the next month. What if I can’t get it all done?