I was content with my little tube television until the flat screen TV came out. I was content with my old flip-phone until the smartphone came out. I was content with Windows 2.0, and yet I have upgraded to every operating system since on my PC. All this upgrading has cost me thousands of dollars and will continue to do so. Companies sell their products these days by making you discontent with what you already have. They show you something bigger and better and suddenly what you have doesn’t seem so good anymore. And yet, when you first got those things, they were exciting and new. ‘Contentment’ is an endangered species, on the verge of extinction. Our culture has hunted it down and killed every instance of it in most cases. But blessed are those who preserve contentment in the present environment. Blessed are those who protect it from being exterminated by the poisonous bait of the advertising industry. For it is better to have a little contentment than a lot of wealth and possessions. To quote the old proverb: “The richest man is not the one who has the most but the one who needs the least.” I’m not saying that we should spurn those gadgets and choose to live like the Amish. I’m not saying that we should not make and market new products. I’m saying that we should learn to be content with less. Learn to live more simply and take joy in what matters most. Be indifferent to what matters little and passionate about what matters most.
Think about how you can live more simply and cultivate a greater sense of contentment.
Read Ecclesiastes 4:4-6
