Contentment and a Giveaway

If you have grown up in or near a church I am sure you are well versed in the contents of this verse: "Godliness with contentment is great gain." Before we go any further did you catch the pun? Because I admit I thought I was funny and rather pathetic too if I am being completely honest. :)

Back to contentment. What exactly is contentment? And what feelings do true contentment evoke? Contentment by definition is 'a feeling of calm satisfaction.'

For months now I have been examining my life with the curiosity to see how much contentment really exists there. For all my life I have thought of contentment as purely materialistic in nature. If I have.....If I can get....If I Do.....Our culture revolves around telling us we need, we want, we should do and then we will find contentment. We need bigger, better, more, etc. I started questioning this logic as I felt less and less peace in my life.

If contentment brings with it a calm satisfaction what was wrong with me? I have never been a consumer. I rarely shop, am typically very happy with what I have so I naturally thought I was content.

While a huge part of being content revolves around consumerism where does it start? What prompts us to act on these whims? I started looking deeper and really.....being dis-content carries with it a lot of self-absorption! We compare our lives and begin wishing for something better. We start feeling less satisfied and more justified. I have worked hard, I deserve, I want, I..I...I...I

One of the things I have wrestled with for a long time now is this pervasive feeling of entitlement. Really, and I am sure some will disagree with me, I don't think we deserve anything. I cannot look at my life, at how I have been blessed and think it has anything to do with me. If I did think that then how do I account for mom in Africa who has to sneak away at night, prostitute herself so that she can feed her children the next day. Has she done something to deserve that life? That is absurd!!! So how do I deserve my life anymore than she should deserve it? You tracking with me?

True contentment begins in the reworking of ones heart! And it filters down in so many areas. I can learn to be content in my sleep deprived state because my children are healthy and enjoy my company at night. *insert sarcasm here* I can learn to be at peace with the demands of a young family. I can find calmness in the midst of active behaviour of children. It needs to be a lifestyle of keeping yourself focused on the Truth! And the truth is that if you can be content with your life you will have great gain! And the great gain is calm satisfaction. No more internal anxiety. No more comparison. Just being still in His presence!

So...on that note I am doing my first blog giveaway!! A few months ago as God was working in me this whole new concept of contentment I actually was the winner of a book on another blog. It was perfect timing and really got me and Mark thinking. There were two books I read during that time that had profound impact on me: The Hole in Our Gospel by Rich Stearns and the book I am giving away today: The Power of Half! If you haven't heard of it look it up on Amazon. It is pretty astounding!! Chances are you maybe saw this father/daughter duo on a TV show or in person somewhere in the past year. Two days after I finished reading the book they spoke at Penn State but I didn't find out about it until after the fact. We were disappointed because we would have enjoyed hearing them speak.

The concept of the book is finding areas of your life where you can cut things in half. The family the book is written by sold their home, gave half of what it was worth away to help with development in Uganda (I think). They took a year researching non-profits until they found who they wanted to work with. Now...most of us cannot sell our home, down-size and have $800,000 to give away. But what are some other ideas? The family I won the book from went through their closets and gave away half of their clothing to Haiti! How about doing without air-conditioning for 2 months and giving what you saved on your electric bill to your local assistance office to help with their electric assistance? What about growing a lot of your own vegetables and giving what your saved to a local food-bank?

It really is thought provoking. Makes you start analyzing your life and you begin to see how frivolous we are. We personally went through closets and toys. Took them to a local consignment shop, sold them and are putting the money in a fund that we have started at our house to try and help buy a portion or a whole well in a village in Africa. If really gets your children thinking. We have begun looking at things we aren't using and are going to try and sell more things over the summer so we have more to give! It is pretty fun!!

So, if you are interested in this book just leave a comment with your name! I am not even going to ask you to do anything - just leave your name. On Sunday evening we will put the names in a hat and pull out the winner! The only thing I ask is if you happen to have a blog that you continue passing this book along. And if you don't have a blog give it away to someone you think would enjoy it and take it to heart! Let's get creative!!