5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.
Writer to the Hebrews. Hebrews 13:5. Hi, it’s Nathan, and this is Day 22 of 30 Days of Growing. Contentment. Do we even know what that word means anymore? I think our entire economy is driven by dis-content. When we compare our stuff to what everybody else seems to have we discover our phone battery doesn’t last long enough. Our car isn’t shiny enough. Our house not grand enough. Our bodies sag or bulge in unattractive ways. Our hair is off-colored. We don’t have the right office. We don’t get enough likes. We haven’t beat the last level of that video game. Among a myriad of other ways we don’t square up to the important people. What if we started simply expressing gratitude for, as the writer says, ‘such things as you have’? How would life change if every time you got in your car you simply relished the privilege of having a working vehicle—even if it didn’t look like your neighbors. What if we were grateful for the home we do have? Reveled in the joy of working in that drab, corner office? Now, this isn’t to say there’s not a proper place for discontent or aspiration—the real issue is not allowing discontent to drive us, specifically discontent driven by what others have that we don’t.
