Learning to be content

Did you know that as a typical British teenager you are in the world’s richest 10%?* You probably don’t feel like you’re in the wealthy elite, neither do I, but we are. So, being this rich surely means we never feel like we need more stuff... right? Hmmmm... I’m really wishing I could get a new phone, and my clothes feel so dated – I need new ones, and I hope I can have a better holiday than last year...

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes a well quoted phrase: I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Contentment doesn’t seem to be a very common state of mind in our culture today.

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Angels or animals or humans?

If you've ever watched a David Attenborough documentary, you can't help but notice how much of our world is driven by animal impulse. Lions prowl about, peacocks display their feathers, humpback whales sing their song... all in an effort to attract the attention of the opposite sex. It's built into their DNA, a biological need with no higher purpose.

Often this is how we treat our sexuality, too.

"I couldn't help myself..."

"She's such a party animal..."

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Hanging out at wells

Drawing clean water from a well is a good thing that has become twisted and distorted in the life of the Samaritan woman we meet in John 4. Such is the pain in her life that she chooses to visit the well during the hottest part of the day to avoid meeting anybody else from her town. She is satisfying a genuine need for clean water in an unhealthy way.

This Samaritan woman is not in the right place at the right time.

But then neither is Jesus.

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What are spiritual disciplines?

Discipline. Now there's a word to make you shudder. Anyone else got an image of a starchy collared Victorian school teacher looking sternly over steel rimmed spectacles? I guess that for most of us "discipline," is not a word that makes us think, "Yay, lets do that!" So what do the words spiritual and discipline together mean for a Christian? Does it mean God is thwacking a big cane against a table every time we get something wrong? Well, guess what - I don't think that's quite how it is.

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Let God’s peace guard your hearts and minds

Everyone desires to be encouraged; everyone wants to have someone that will listen; everyone needs someone that cares for them; and everyone wishes to be cherished regardless of what they’ve done. In Philippians 4:2-3 Paul clearly acknowledges this, for he doesn’t want those in Philippi to allow disagreements to tarnish the unity that Christ so desires for the church. 

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Living for God with a sex drive

How do you feel about your sexuality? Are you trying to live for God despite it, or with it? And what about your sex drive? Is it controlling you or are you the one in control?* 

I don't think God wants us to lock our sexuality away or to be frightened of our sex drive. Sexuality was his idea after all! He created us male and female - with sexual feelings and needs. As you grow into the man or woman God designed, how are you going to live for Him with a sex drive? Here are some of my thoughts:

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Identifying your wells

When was the last time you went to a well to get water? What about your parents? Or your brother or sister?

We no longer need to visit wells to meet our basic need of clean water. We simply visit the kitchen or the utility room or the family bathroom or our en-suite bathroom or the water closet… We turn on a tap and instantly water flows out - as much or as little as we desire, hot or cold or somewhere in between. You may think this observation is somewhat obvious but I make it to highlight how far removed we are from the world of the Samaritan woman we meet in John 4.

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The bystanders and the Cross

I’ve often reflected on how long I would try and survive hanging on a cross. Death would be inevitable so would I just give up or would I stretch out my life as long as possible? I don’t know. Currently I’m not planning to get into a position to risk being crucified, but as I stare at the poor buggers hanging there in such torment it makes you wonder why they want to live those extra hours or that extra day.

People can survive for days hanging on a cross so crowds usually disperse soon after the nails are in and the cross is dropped into the ground. There’s something primitive inside of us that seems to enjoy the gory parts, but watching a guy wheeze and die slowly, it’s not that appealing.

But today is different.

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The criminal and the cross

Someone spat in his face but the weight of the cross prevented him from wiping it away. Silently, he walked on, knowing he deserved it but hating the person anyway. These days he had no strength left for anything but hate. Maybe once he had hoped, but not anymore. He was a criminal, sentenced to die, and nothing and no one could save him now. Lost in his thoughts they reached the hilltop, The Skull, the last place he would ever see. Did he regret what he had done? Yes. But what good was regret now?

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The centurion and the cross

I wonder what Roman centurions felt as they carried out their often brutal duties in a foreign land. In most cases I imagine centurions were cold hard characters immune to even the slightest compassion. On crucifixion duty many may have even enjoyed dishing out the punishment upon the soon-to-be-dead criminal, while others would have simply been dispassionate and business-like. Centurions would have been used to the hatred of their prisoners and the cursing and swearing aimed at them as they carried out their duties.

Against this background Luke 23:47 stands out as somewhat extraordinary:

The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man."

:: Luke 23:47

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