The Power of Contentment

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~6 min read

Hi there! Welcome to Well Lit Soul where we seek God, face darkness, and shine brighter. Today’s blog is called: The Power of Contentment.

Last week we talked about the difficulties I’ve had with gratitude over the years. And how I often leaned on mustard seed gratitude until I could feel that enlightened joy and deep appreciation for my life and all the things in it. However, I glossed over the details of how I developed the sincere feeling and state of gratitude.

That self-work started in January 2023 after I moved into a new apartment in Atlanta because of a wonderful job I started a few months prior. I was sitting in my beautifully decorated home on my cozy couch upset for reasons I can’t quite remember now, but it’s likely because I wasn’t married, or in a financial position to pay off my student debt and buy a house, or generally feeling dissatisfied with my life. In that dim moment, I recalled what a wise friend told me the summer before. That we have to focus on “what is” rather than “what if”. Because if I really thought about it, I was currently living in an answered prayer but didn’t fully see it because I was too busy thinking about the next one.  

That subtle shift from “what if” to “what is” brought me to the idea of contentment. And contentment was the bridge I needed to get to gratitude. Contentment was about having satisfaction with the things in my life as is and not wanting or desiring for more. This helped me stop living in the imaginary future I envisioned in my head and start living in the present (James 4:13-16). And it was more than living in the moment or being present for an experience, but fully living one day at a time and only being concerned about what was right in front of me. And after spending a year focused on contentment, I found that real joy, that peace that surpasses all understanding, and that abundant gratitude. 

Throughout 2023, God answered ‘yes’ to a lot of the prayers I prayed all those years ago in the midst of my darkness. I was back in the city where my friends, family, and church home were. I had a new job that was helping me learn my purpose in life. And I had begun studying Aikido which brought a new outlet for fun and fitness plus an incredible community that felt like family. The blessings were coming down and I felt beyond thankful that God had provided so much for me. It seemed like everything around me shined and sparkled like sun rays piercing through streams of water from a sprinkler on a summer morning. It was hands down the best year of my adult life. I felt nothing but gratitude and all I wanted to do was shout from the rooftops how good my God is and how much He has done for me. Gratitude became more than a feeling, it was a state of being.  

Then, when 2024 came, I decided it was time for me to start fully living the purpose I discovered the year prior. So, I started working on building a life where I could more actively work in my purpose from sun up to sun down. But unfortunately, that caused my gratitude to slip once again. When I became clear of what I wanted for my life, I started to put in the work to pursue it, but then I found myself living in the future like I had been doing. My focus shifted back to planning for next steps and I was using a lot of energy trying to figure out how to build this life. So, even while trying to do good work, I found myself prioritizing the next thing and focused on what I didn’t have now, which caused me to forget the blessings right in front of me. 

This is a hard one for me. My whole life, I was taught so much about being goal-oriented, driven, and ambitious. And that makes sense because so much of our life is about growing and advancing to the next stage. But the challenge is, those aspirations are typically very outcome focused rather than process oriented. 

Going back to the vineyard metaphor, if I’m outcome focused, I might work to have a bigger garden or have the largest crops or the most bountiful harvest. However, if I’m driven by the process, I’m more concerned with doing my best work to care for the garden and recognize that God makes it grow and gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). I’m merely there to be a worker in His vineyard. And although there’s nothing inherently wrong with aspiring for bigger, I realized that when I’m outcome focused, I’m relying more on my own ability to produce something rather than God’s will and power to do so. And usually, my own personal aspirations and desires for the big grandiose things in the future are not aligned with what God has planned for me right now, in this very moment. And ultimately, I forget that God is the one in control, and not me. 

So, I decided to bring “contentment” back as my word for 2024 and I will probably keep it around moving forward. Because contentment brought me back to the present, renewed my gratitude, refueled my light, and reminded me who I’m following. And the lesson for me is to stay focused on today and step back so God can take care of tomorrow. 

And this is an ongoing lesson because there are a still lot of things that haven’t been worked out yet. As of this writing, God’s plan for how all of this Well Lit Soul work is about to happen has not been made clear. I have not reached that understanding yet. But I have to walk by faith, not by sight. Because as Jesus says in Matthew 6:31-34,

“31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”. 

And that’s the faith building journey–learning to trust that He has it worked out even when I can’t see the end. And no matter what, all things will work together for His good, Romans 8:28. 

Connection Question: How much do you focus on the future vs prioritizing the present? How comfortable are you with uncertainties and trusting God with the unknown? 

Let me know in the comments, I’d love to connect with you about it.