A letter from Anthony...
“Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” 2 Corinthians 5:1–5
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One of the things that I used to enjoy doing when
visiting with my dad, was sitting around discussing the old cars for sale in
his car magazines. He usually kept a
large stack of car magazines of various genres in the lounge room. And as we both enjoyed discussing car related
topics, we could talk for hours about these things, or until Mum stopped us –
because it was time to talk about something else.
And while I cherish the memories of discussing all
those rare and classic cars for sale together, I have to admit that there was
something about looking at magazines full of incredibly rare and highly sort
after old cars that would breed a sense of discontentment in me, as many of my
dream cars were flashed before my eyes.
But it’s not just car people who have this problem, whenever any of us
have something that tempts us flashed before our eyes, it can often breed a
sense of discontentment in our hearts as we are faced with things we would like
to have – but can’t obtain. Whether that
be a neighbour’s new piece of machinery, or an incredible garden that someone
we know has been able to achieve.
Discontentment is something that is not foreign to any
of our hearts. But when we are
discontent with what God has given us in this life, we are saying in our hearts
that what God has given us is not enough, and that we either want or deserve
more.
But what if I was to tell you that there is a godly kind of discontentment? A kind of discontentment that doesn’t lead us to question God’s provision for us, but actually inspires us to give Him the praise, glory and honour for what He has done.
In many ways, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a
blessing to us all. Not because it has
been easy or comfortable, but because it has forced us out of our comfort zones
and into a renewed knowledge of how short and how frail life in this world
is. As many of us fear for the future
both economically, socially and physically, it has forced us into a place where
we have to rely on God for the future.
It has forced us to look up, and see life under the sun for what it
really is. Before Covid, many of us had
filled our lives with so many things that we were content just doing what we
were doing, or too busy and distracted to think about it. But now, as Covid has forced us out of what
is known and familiar, it is easy to become discontent with the circumstances
we now find ourselves in, as we wrestle with the challenges and difficulties of
living in this fallen world.
Godly discontentment, however, does not cause us to
long for things in this life that we do not have – but to long for the life
that we have in Christ. Godly
discontentment stops us from settling for life in this fallen world, with all
of it shiny things that steal our gaze yet never satisfy us, and causes us to
long for the age to come as we “groan, longing to be clothed with our
heavenly dwelling”.
In this season, when so many are tempted to invest all
their concern and worry into this life, may we fix our gaze upon God’s word and
His faithfulness to His promises, finding our strength in Him. May our discontentment in the disruption from
our comfortable and pleasurable lives, grow our longing for “our heavenly
dwelling”; our eternal home guaranteed for us through the completed work of
Christ Jesus.
In Christ, Anthony
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