“It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it.”
The above quote is from the main character, Chris Gardner, in the Will Smith movie “The Pursuit of Happiness”. Although there is much debate regarding Jefferson’s intentions and meaning to his famous phrase, there isn’t much question today what we mean by happiness and our right to both pursue it and have it. Happiness is a right, and we ought to be allowed to end business partnerships, marriages, and even lives when we are not happy. Two of the problems in making happiness a goal and right is that it is only fulfilled circumstantially, and is too often only individualistic in its focus.
Rather than a pursuit of happiness, the bible speaks of pursuing contentment. In this Sunday’s passage Paul speaks of having “learned in whatever situation I am to be content. (Phil 4:11)” Paul wasn’t born with contentment, he learned it. Paul’s uses of the word “content” here because it was a concept the Greeks were well familiar with, but with an important twist. In Paul’s day Stoic philosophy was most prominent. Philosopher Epicetus said, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” It has the ring of good advice doesn’t it, and is similar to Dr. Seuss’s advice in, “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?”
“When you think things are bad,
when you feel sour and blue,
when you start to get mad…
you should do what I do!
Just tell yourself, Duckie,
you’re really quite lucky!
Some people are much more…
oh, ever so much more…
oh, muchly much-much more
unlucky than you!”
The problem is that it is ever so much more difficult in practice than theory. Pablo Picasso famously said, “I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.” Picasso has picked up some of the conundrum we face in our search for contentment. There are always challenges, regardless of our situation, which make the stoic solution of personal discipline an exercise in human frustration and futility. The Christian solution is found in rooting our contentment outside ourselves. We find contentment in our service of others – a ‘partnership’ in the gospel, and by Christ. He states this most clearly when he tells us his secret, the thing he has learned to live contentedly in every situation: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
I pray that you would also grow in godly contentment just as Paul did. In the meantime, when you know you need help to find contentment, please know that you are not alone. Pastoral care is available through Pastor Andrew or myself, our Life Groups, our Care Connection binders, and our Stephen Ministry. If you are struggling, please don’t struggle alone.
Much love,
Pastor Gary