Contentment

‘I have learned to be content with whatever I have’
Philippians 4:11

Perhaps the loveliest of all God’s gifts to us humans – and also, to our shame, the most rarely cherished – is contentment. We certainly live in a constantly discontented society, in which we are all tempted constantly to wish that things were ‘better’, by which we usually mean financially. Simply listening to people talking on the bus, in the shops or at social events confirms that most of us are less than contented with our lot. We could do with a better car, a nicer house, a larger garden or, of course, one of those television make-overs. And this from one of the most privileged generations in human history! So St Francis of Assisi, whose feast day falls this month, is both relevant and an irritant for the people of the affluent West. We are in favour of his love of animals – look what we spend on our pets! But we are rather thrown by his exaltation of poverty and its blessings. Why did he feel the need to give away everything he possessed, even his fine clothes? And how could he see poverty as something to be embraced rather than resisted at all costs?

Perhaps these words of St Paul, especially when read in their context, provide the answer. The true blessing is not poverty itself (poverty can be ugly, undignified and cruel) but contentment. ‘I know what it is to have little’, he says, ‘and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me’.

He would say, and doubtless Francis would heartily agree, that those who know the riches of faith and the treasures of love have an inner strength, a spiritual wealth, that is more valuable than any number of cherished possessions.

Canon David Winter is a former Diocesan Director of Evangelism,a broadcaster and author of many books including Making Sense of the Bible (Lion).