By Pastor Chris Wall
You sit at the traffic light. You’re not in a rush to reach any particular destination, yet you still wish to get there quickly. The seconds crawl by, achingly slow. Frustration begins to build. As you sit there fuming over a light that refuses to change, you fail to notice the very car you’re sitting in—still running well enough to be on the road that day. You overlook the beautiful canvas that God has painted: the gentle breeze brushing across the landscape, the sunlight casting sweet rays of warmth, birds soaring overhead, and even the roadrunner darting just out of the corner of your eye.
Chris Wall
All this beauty—the entire forest—is lost on us because of one figurative tree: an unchanging traffic light.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all experienced a scenario like this—perhaps with slightly different details, but the same underlying impatience. Patience is a virtue desperately needed and seldom found. And at the root of our impatience is something deeper: a lack of contentment.
But what is contentment, really? If we are to pursue it, we must first understand it. Here is the definition I’ll be working from:
Contentment is a peaceful satisfaction in God’s provision, presence, and providence, regardless of one’s circumstances, trusting that He is working all things for my good and His glory.
If that is contentment, then its opposite is dissatisfaction. And according to our definition, dissatisfaction arises when we doubt God’s care and are ungrateful for it. I hope it goes without saying just how spiritually dangerous that posture is.
I once heard a story that reshaped my view of contentment. I still have a long way to go in this area, but changing your perspective can be a powerful catalyst for growth.
The story goes like this:
A young man once asked an older, godly saint how he had learned the virtue of contentment. The older man simply replied, “I always get what I want.”
The young man, amazed—and admittedly a bit disheartened that he had not yet learned how to pray in such a way that he always got what he asked for—responded, “How is that?”
The older saint replied, “I decided long ago that whatever God, in His providence, chooses to do is what’s best for me—and it’s what I want too. So, ever since I started thinking that way, I’ve always gotten what I wanted.”
What a profoundly liberating and God-honoring perspective! We should always want what God wants. And we know, according to Scripture, that what God ultimately wants is for us to place our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior.
So, trust Jesus today—and be content.
Chris Wall is the Pastor of Mesquite Baptist Church (750 W. Pioneer Blvd., Mesquite, NV, 89027)–Additional resources can be found at “mesquitebaptistchurchnv.com” and on YouTube and Instagram at “mesquitebaptistchurchnv”
