It’s going to be a ‘December of discontent”. So came the assessment of one wise friend. And it’s not hard to see how he might have come to that conclusion.
Of course there are exciting stories of people coming to Christ – new people nipping in to online services – and some people discovering wonderful new hobbies and careers as Covid causes us to reassess pretty much all we do, but overall December will be hard.
We’ll either be in lockdown or reeling from the recent lockdown’s multifaceted effects. We’ll be facing a Christmas that, on both the church and family front, is far from what we would wish. And then there are things political – domestic and international – that fall short of what each of us desire.
On a personal level, of course, the discontent can feel even more acute. Many of us will be facing personal ill-health, emotional distress, financial challenges, relational strife – or just good old-fashioned exhaustion – as we reel from a year that has brought us a whole new vocabulary alongside the raft of challenges we didn’t expect.
Of course, to a certain extent, discontent is right. This world is not as it should be. We are experiencing the corporate ‘groaning’ that comes with fallenness and, as advent reminds us, we should long for Jesus to return and put that right. There is individual human sinfulness in evidence and that brings the need for Jesus’ birth into sharp relief and should cause us to yearn for personal change. Indeed, settling for the life we have experienced in 2020 would be an awful way to end the year!
But, on another level, discontent is not a characteristic we, as Christians, should be happy to own.
A season of satisfaction
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul shares his inspirational (if rather uncomfortable) assertion that he has learned to be content in all circumstances (Phil. 4:12). It’s not that his external situation doesn’t matter to him – he’s not beyond asking for his coat (2 Tim. 4:13) and he’s grateful for gifts that help provide for his need – but he sees life through the lens of Christ. He trusts the God who Himself has seen the riches of heaven and the horrors of the cross (Phil 2:6-11) to provide for him in all circumstances. He sees gospel potential in every situation, including being in prison. And, if there are opportunities to grow to be more like Jesus and share the gospel, then he’s glad!
On one level we might yearn to be more like Paul. On another level, maybe we just wish verses like that weren’t quoted anywhere near our ears! Contentment in 2020 feels like an unobtainable goal. But, interestingly, Paul didn’t just wake up with this contentment one morning. It didn’t come naturally to him. He had to learn it. And he learned it not by having a hard life – or an easy life – but a life that ebbed and flowed between the two. He learned that God was a provider as he navigated both riches and poverty, hunger and plenty – even freedom and incarceration.
I imagine most of us are familiar with thanking God in the good times and turning to him for help in the tough. We have theologies that help us navigate both praise and pain. But it is only when we bring together those aspects of our worship into one holistic whole that we can find true satisfaction. It is on the revolving journey between hard and easy that our contentment grows. It is when we see repeatedly that neither a tsunami of pain nor a flat calm of ease alters our awesome God’s generous leading, loving, provision and care, that we truly begin to flourish.
So if (like me) you’re feeling a December of discontent coming on, maybe it’s time to look again at just what a wonderful provider sits on high. Not just salvation, but everything we need for life and godliness (even today). And let’s grasp this opportunity – no matter how tired we are – not just to develop an understanding of trust in tough times, but a contentment that holds fast whatever 2021 may bring.
