Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. – Philippians 4:11
On a Saturday afternoon in December 2019, my daughter and I attended a performance of The Nutcracker by the Jacksonville Symphony. When we arrived home that evening, we were surprised by a huge boxer dog at the door. While we had been gone, my husband and my son met with a local boxer rescue group and decided to foster a dog! In the adoption photos, this dog looked much smaller than he actually was. He is certainly the tallest boxer I have ever seen. He has a giant head that can be compared to Marmaduke’s from the old comic strip. His jaw is slightly crooked, so his tongue is always peeking out the right side of his mouth. “Unique-looking” is the perfect way to describe him!
After much debate, we named him Samson (because of his size, of course), and the fostering situation soon turned into adoption. He has been a member of our family for several years now.
Samson has had his challenges, to be sure, and still had some training to undergo. Overall, he is a happy dog. He needs very little to keep him content and has a joyful disposition. He makes us laugh every single day. My children adore him, and he and our other dog, a 30-pound Boston terrier named Tuna, are best friends. Samson is leading a blissful and charmed life for any dog.
One of his funny quirks is that he likes to sleep in Tuna’s tiny dog bed. He curls up his long, lanky legs beneath him and folds into a tiny ball to fit into the small bed. He will ignore the large, comfy dog bed right next to the small one and instead will curl up like a cinnamon roll into the teeny bed. He looks peacefully satisfied, curled up tight in the smallest spot available. He requires little to be content.
Born in 1880, Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing at the age of two following a bout of illness. When she was seven years old, Helen met her famous teacher Anne Sullivan, who began teaching her sign language, braille, and touch lipreading. She learned to speak soon after and later became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904. Helen Keller is well-known around the world for her advocacy work for others who are deaf and blind. She left a legacy that has lived on and continues to profoundly help others, even many years after her death. Her prolific writings are filled with anecdotes of wisdom. One such quote states, “Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”
Helen Keller found gladness and purpose in a state of living that most of us would find crippling and oppressive. She discovered contentment and joy on the exact path that God chose for her.
Contentment is never found in the person who spends time wishing and hoping for what others have. A lack of contentment is the chasm between a mundane life lived and a joyful life lived. God never once told us to chase our dreams or make ourselves happy. This secular and humanistic philosophy has crept into our society to our detriment. Instead, the Bible is filled with commands for us to serve and help others. We are to point people to Christ and use our lives in service to Him.
Contentment makes all the difference. It is the foundation beneath thankfulness and joyfulness. It is the fuel that keeps the fire for serving others burning. Contentment makes all the difference in the life of a Christian. A joyful Christian is a content Christian.
Determining to be content is the recipe for joy. When we look for the bad, we surely will find it; similarly, we must look for the blessings because they are always there. Like Samson all snuggled up in that tiny dog bed, we all can be content in the little things if we would decide to be content with what we have and with where we are. Be content!
by Tracie S. Burns
