This is part of an ongoing series during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. To engage further in the #QuarantineSoulCare series, click here.
A high view of contentment was a consistent pattern across the ages. This, of course, does not mean that existence was easy and the streets filled with smiling citizens. Quite the opposite. Throughout most of history, life has been marked by tragedy and destitution. But when wealth and health were stripped away, when young children were dead and buried, when men and boys went off to war and returned home broken, there remained the possibility of something inside combining with something above to give hope. As unlikely as it sounds, peace and rest are possible among the ruins. …
Brother Yun was born in 1958 and became a Christian at age sixteen. He was deeply involved in the Chinese house church movement and, as a result, persecuted, beaten, and imprisoned repeatedly. After four imprisonments lasting seven years, he escaped prison and eventually fled the country only to be incarcerated again in Myanmar. The German embassy was able to secure his release after seven months, and that country today serves as Yun’s base for worldwide ministry.
What is his attitude toward his affliction? …
We have learned that God is in control both of our own lives and the government we live under. … Instead of focusing our prayers against any political system, we pray that regardless of what happens to us, we will be pleasing to God.
The gift of contentment says that striving is not inevitable. It is not a given that circumstances should rule our lives. Security is not ours alone to manage. Betrayal might be a fact, but bitterness is neither automatic nor compulsory. Pain is perhaps a daily reality but anger need not be. God controls all, including the margins. He has provided a way. We are not alone. Contentment in Him becomes our “harvest song of inward peace.”
“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
–Matthew 5:5, The Message
May you experience God’s peace and rest today regardless of the circumstances you’re confronted with. #quarantinesoulcare Share on X
Today’s reading was taken from Contentment by Richard A. Swenson.
