As Chapter 1 of Satisfied continues, author Jeff Manion notes that the gravity of Paul’s message to Timothy is intended to sober us as we contemplate the amount of time and energy we spend accumulating stuff. That sobering reminder is that we will wear out and get old. Our stuff is only temporarily in our custody. If our possessions don’t wear out and leave us, we will wear out and leave them.
Pastor Manion recalls clearly the time when this reality hit home. Jeff went to visit his aged grandmother in a retirement home. Her comfortable room consisted of a bed, a chair, and a TV- but little else of value. Not so different, he muses, from parents placing their newborn in a simple nursery with a crib and a rocker.
This realization, the author adds, begs the question: “How much stuff is it really necessary to accumulate between these two rooms?” How much will it take for us to say that we feel full and are satisfied? Pastor Manion states that the key is to find our “life in the Giver and not in his gifts.” This virtue of contentment is totally liberating because it frees us from the idolatrous illusion that purchasing stuff has any power to take away our loneliness, complete our emptiness, or heal our brokenness.
Today’s question: Have you done a needs assessment during your desert, land between time? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Simplicity doesn’t equal contentment”
