Contentment

Some thoughts from Donald Miller's latest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, that are really hitting close to home with me these days:

"God allows Job's family to be taken, along with his wealth and his health. Job calls out to God, asking why God would let this happen. God does not answer Job's question. It's as though God starts off his message to the world by explaining there are painful realities in life we cannot and will never understand. Instead, he appears to Job in a whirlwind and asks if Job knows who stops the waves on the shore or stores the snow in Wichita every winter. He asks Job who manages the constellations that reel through the night sky."

"And that is essentially all God says to Job. God doesn't explain pain philosophically or even lists its benefits. God says to Job, Job, I know what I am doing, and this whole thing isn't about you. Job responds, even before his health and wealth are restored by saying, 'All of this is too wonderful for me.' Job found contentment and even joy, outside the context of comfort, health or stability. He understood the story was not about him, and he cared more about the story than he did about himself."

"Paul says Jesus is the hope that will not disappoint. I find that comforting. That helps me get through the day, to be honest. It even makes me content somehow. Maybe that's what Paul meant when he said he'd learned the secret of contentment."

I like it when God speaks to me through other people, and through their experiences. It shows me that I am not alone in my own thinking, that others have similar struggles too. I have a long way to go towards being content, but I am at least on the path, walking towards it...