Skylar's Blog & Podcast

Who here likes Thanksgiving? I know I absolutely adore it. If Thanksgiving were a person we would be BEST friends! Have you ever gotten to a place at Thanksgiving dinner when you are so full, but there is still so much good food to be eaten. Here is where you face a dilemma. Do you walk away from the food and settle for contentment, or do you push the boundaries of your stomach and dive in to some more stuffing and cranberry sauce? Advertisers, business owners, and even Bill Gates (sorry, that was random) would say GO FOR IT! If America's slogan wasn't "God bless America" it would definitely be "Go for it!"...or not. It seems like we are encouraged (and at some times it might feel like we are ordered) to not settle. To never be content. America applauds the man who was making $35 million and is now making $45 million. We get excited and even drool with envy over the family who moves out of the 100,000 square foot house to a one MILLION square foot house. Is this completely wrong...no it's not. However, this idea of never being content can get you into some serious trouble. If you were to take a look at some of the people God used in the Bible they didn't have very much. In fact, when Jesus sent out his disciples for the first time he told them to not take ANYTHING! Even Jesus himself didn't have a home, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." (Luke 9:58). Where does our attitude of MORE, MORE, MORE lay in this? This weekend we went down to Mexico to build a house for a family who was living in a broken down mobile home. After we put the roof up we noticed the house was tilted ever so slightly to the left. Our own Jerry Harris was joking with the mom saying, "La casa es muy crooked." However, the mother looked at Jerry and replied, "No, es MUY BONITA." For those of you who don't habla espanol that means, "No, it is very beautiful." This was a beautiful painting of contentment. Paul is another great picture of being happy even with nothing. In Philippians he writes, "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content. I know how to be brought low, and how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." (Phil 4:11-12) What's even more interesting is Paul was writing all of this from prison, where he was definitely in need. Being content is very difficult because it has nothing to do with how we feel. In fact most of the time it goes directly against how we feel. For instance, you want that purse or those pairs of shoes or that CD, and you actually make yourself believe you NEED IT! However, what we need to realize is what we think we need is not what we actually need. We could use what we have (i.e. money, time, attention) for so many more incredible things than just the objects we want and buy. Let's look at our lives and really think about what it means to be content in our daily walk. Let's think about ways we can manage without certain "things" and along the way let's think about how God can use what we have left over.