Are You Content?

            My wife and I are on vacation this week. We are on a quest to visit all 50 states in the union.  By the end of this trip we will have made 40. All of the remaining ten are in the upper western portion of our nation, along with Alaska and Hawaii.  Our nation is a beautiful place. I enjoy travel abroad as well, but I really want to complete this journey.

            I have another travel goal as well. I am blessed to be married to a lady who loves me and is willing to put up with my hobbies. I want to see a baseball game in every Major League park. On the trip we are making this week, we will see the Braves play in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago.  That will bring my total to fifteen of the thirty teams. 

            What kind of goals do you have in life?  When I was younger I was certain that I wanted to be a major league baseball player…a pitcher to be exact. Well, I did pitch in high school. Wasn’t bad. But I went undrafted, and no one signed me as a free agent.  From time to time I will watch a game and think, I could have done that poorly.  But it never happened.

            So, I have been quite content to be a pastor for almost 44 years.  I have preached and taught and led meetings and performed weddings and officiated at funerals and visited in hospitals and nursing homes and a host of other things that pertain to the job. And it’s interesting.  It’s not just at church that people see me as a pastor. On the golf course a lot of my friends simply refer to me as, “Preacher.” And I gladly answer.

            Preaching is the most obvious thing I do. It is the most public thing I do. And so, the name applies. “Preacher.”  Say it out loud and I will at the very least turn my head. I am more than likely to answer.

            Again, what are your goals in life? Who are you? Who do you want to be? Paul wrote, “I have learned to be content in all circumstances.”  That’s a hard thing to do.  There are some circumstances that make me cringe.  And yet, there may be times when God places me (or you) in places you would rather not be. Can you be content there? Can you be satisfied to please God, even when it is hard.

            God has not promised His children an easy life. But He has promised to be with us. “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” He has declared, and He always keeps His promises. Will you trust Him to do that for you?