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Cold Water and the Art of Christian Contentment
December 1, 2006
Michael Evans
 
Cold Water and the Art of Christian Contentment
A recent problem in our home set me to thinking about a subject I don’t give much attention to: contentment.
It was late on a Sunday night. After a long and good, but tiring, Lord’s Day I was looking forward to a good hot shower and then a warm bed.
It usually takes a while for the hot water to make its transcontinental journey from the basement up to the second story of this big old house. But on this night, it never made it.
Filled with a warm heart of faith and contentment (or perhaps not) I threw on some clothes to see what was wrong with the water heater.
I’ve torn into many projects around this house over the past eleven years, but I don’t do water heaters.
Natural gas and flames…at least in a house, make me nervous. But not so nervous that I was willing to forsake a hot shower...at least without a fight.
After unscrewing an access panel, I discovered a wire had shorted out. I flipped the circuit off and quickly repaired the connection. No big deal.
Now it was time to relight the pilot light. Never done that before. I walked back up the basement stairs and assembled appropriate attire for one who thought he might well cause an explosion.
I threw on my thickest winter coat and gloves, then fashioned a device by which I could light the pilot from a couple feet away.
Let me tell you, the adrenaline was seriously pumping. I actually read the complete instructions on re-lighting the pilot several times. In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that before.
After successfully lighting the pilot, a huge sense of relief and joy came over me as the burner kicked on. I had just killed a trophy buck, won my own private Super Bowl, Indy 500, and World Series in a single night.
Seriously. I was thrilled not to have blown up my house, my family, or even myself.
I removed my stuntman fire gear and walked…no, strutted proudly upstairs to find my wife nestled warmly in our bed reading a magazine.
In my mind, I imagined her jumping out of bed, leaping into my arms with a passionate kiss, singing my praises… like “You are the man!” “You just saved us some serious money!” “You truly are an awesome husband.” “There is none like you.”
Please try to imagine my disappointment when the first words out of her mouth were these: “Are your feet clean?”
Obviously Karla had no comprehension of the very real drama that had unfolded in my life during the previous thirty minutes.
I had just endured an action adventure, mystery, death and life drama, all in one, and all she could say was, “Are your feet clean?”
I did my best to try and help her understand what her response should have been upon my improbable and safe arrival back in the bedroom.
It’s always a tenuous exercise to tell another what they should feel. But hey, the adrenaline was still running high!
Well, we worked it through and still prayed together before we went to sleep.
For small things like this it’s impossible to remain angry with someone and pray with them at the same time.
What this event demonstrated to me was my own unrealistic expectations for my wife.
A less charitable person than myself might give it some kind of a sin name….like pride or selfishness.
Perhaps rather than strutting upstairs with unrealistic expectations of adulation and affection, I should have humbly thanked God for the fact that the water heater was working again and that we were all safe.
[Update for you men. The pilot light on the water heater has gone out three more times. Karla’s responses have been much improved.]
Contentment is a condition, a regular state of faith and being that comes as a result of having a correct perspective on life. This condition is a foreign state to many of us.
Discontentment, on the other hand, is like a persistent and tireless knocker on our windows at night, or a dripping faucet which demands our attention and steals away both our peace and our affection for God.
Every Christian home-schooling family is uniquely “at risk” for discontentment. So many of us struggle with guilt over how we’re really doing with our children.
Many of us experience guilt over the reality that we cannot afford to do certain things educationally for our children that we think would serve them well.
No matter how well our children “perform”, some of us live in the heat of (the largely make-believe) battle of constant competition with the world, in relation to test scores, spelling/geography bees, etc.
We have set up a straw man. The world may be paying attention at times, but who cares?
For the most part, this is a battle in the minds of people who will never advance even one square in the art of Christian contentment. That is, unless we have a dramatic change of heart and mind.
A Puritan once sat down to his meal and found that he had only a little bread and some water. His response was to exclaim, “What? All this and Jesus Christ, too!”
How different this attitude is from many of our responses to the realities of living in a fallen world, replete with our own personal and manifest limitations!
The moment the thought “I deserve better than this” even enters our minds, let alone is spoken from our lips, is the very same moment we become atheists.
Now of course I’m not talking here about moral issues where a wife is mistreated in any way, or anything along these lines.
I’m talking about the everyday matters of life. What are your expectations?
We live in an entitlement age where the expectations are that we will have everything our hearts desire…and soon.
Contentment in this life is determined, in part, by the expectations we have from it.
Those who think that life, or God, owes them a free lunch, will be forever enslaved by the insatiable thirst for more. There is no level of financial or worldly success that can ever satisfy such a heart.
Until our expectations are reduced to nothing, we will never appreciate the intricacies of God’s beautiful gifts around us each and every day.
At the heart of discontentment is always unbelief. The sin of unbelief is actually the root of all sin.
If it is true that the root of all discontentment is unbelief, then it must also be true that the root of all true contentment must be in thinking rightly about, and applying the knowledge of, God.
Psalm 1 makes this very clear: “Blessed is the man whose….delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Accuse me of reductionism if you will, but delighting in, and meditating on God and His Word, is the best antidote to a spirit of discontentment.
Sometimes when those voices are speaking to you (the real ones, not the imaginary ones), driving you to the brink of insanity, you need to excuse yourself and go have a serious talk with yourself. Seriously.
That’s what the Psalmist did in Psalm 43:5. He asks himself a question, diagnoses the problem, issues the prescription, and then takes it in, by speaking to himself!
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him; my salvation and my God.”
Contentment in a fallen world comes naturally to no one, but isn’t that true of every good gift?
All that we have at any one moment, by way of material or spiritual blessing is only because of God’s infinite mercy and grace.
Sometimes it takes the loss of all things material to get us where we need to be. But if contentment in Christ alone is the end result, it’s well worth it!
And so, as you read these words with Christmas 2006 just around the corner, may you find your hearts at rest, content in all that God is for us in Christ.
And, in the event that your water heater breaks, and you fix it, temper the expectations you have of your wife’s response.
Learn from me, for I am slow to learn and proud of heart. But, like some of you perhaps, I’m trying to learn and grow in the art of contentment.
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Isaac Watts wrote the following poem to capture the spirit of the birth narrative of Christ in Luke Chapter 2. Enjoy!
“Shepherds, rejoice! lift up your eyes
And send your fears away;
News from the region of the skies:
Salvation's born today!
Jesus, the God whom angels fear,
Comes down to dwell with you;
Today he makes his entrance here,
But not as monarchs do.
“No gold, nor purple swaddling bands,
Nor royal shining things;
A manger for his cradle stands,
And holds the King of kings.
Go, shepherds, where the Infant lies,
And see his humble throne;
With tears of joy in all your eyes,
Go, shepherds, kiss the Son.”
Thus Gabriel sang, and straight around
The heavenly armies throng;
They tune their harps to lofty sound
And thus conclude the song:
“Glory to God that reigns above,
Let peace surround the earth;
Mortals shall know their Maker's love
At their Redeemer's birth.”
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