Contentment through Generosity

Have you found contentment in buying just one more thing?  Nope.

Of course not.  It’s not how our hearts works.  

Contentment is a beautiful word.  And a great idea, right?  But how many of us would admit that perhaps our purchases are made out of discontentment? 

I don’t think we need to go too far to be reminded of it. 

I know for me it’s when I’m mindlessly scrolling my Insta feed.  Pressing into another messy mom moment of meltdowns and sinful attitudes.  And cleaning goldfish crumbs off mis-matched furniture in a living room decorated in the 2010s.

It’s easy to look at what we don’t have.  It’s easy to look “up” to those who have or make more than us.  It’s easy to play the comparison game.  

Ironically I’m writing this as our boys are huddled on the floor over football cards purchased from chore money and quickly learning the art of value trading.

Andy Stanley asks “How do you say ‘enough’ in a world that has fine-tuned its messaging to make you continually dissatisfied with everything you currently own?”

How do we hold our desires (good or bad) and be a “good” steward at the same time?

So I put the phone down.  And tell my heart “no”.  This isn’t being a good steward.   

I need to stop dwelling on the root of my discontentment.  I need to work on BEING content, yes?  To just (as Stanley continues) “find the will power to say no when, technically, we can afford to say yes.”

Change starts with mindfulness and awareness

“Awareness fuels discontent.  But awareness can be used to tether and tame it as well…you must begin cultivating awareness of things that really matter.” Stanley writes in How To Be Rich, 97 and 101.

Let’s dive in further as Jesus talks with some Pharisees over a meal:

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.  You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?  But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.  Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.”

Luke 11:39-42

John Mark Comer’s preached a sermon on Generosity as a Spiritual Practice. This was pivotal for me.  What I was missing was MY HEART.  And money.  Or more specifically GIVING MONEY AWAY.

Listen to this: We can’t hear a sermon and just tell our heart to stop being discontent. There isn’t a switch to flip to stop wanting more things.  It’s not how the heart works.  But according Jesus, He gives us another way:  generosity can become a way to index our hearts to Christ.

Awareness is the first step.  Not only of what you don’t have or want to have.  But what’s going on in our hearts.  And then what the needs are in our community and around the world.

Matthew 6:21 states, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  I believe the inverse is also true: where your heart is, there your treasure is too!  It’s the giving away of money that reorients our hearts.

“Truth is, if you embrace extravagant generosity, you will be forced to say no to your appetite for more stuff, more status, and more security”.

Andy Stanley, How To Be Rich, 90

This seems backwards or upside down.

But were not most of Jesus’ teachings?  “The last shall be first.”  “Give and you will receive.”

I think I believed these teachings because I was told to trust His teachings.  That they were right.  And because they were the Words of Christ, they were true.  And then it clicked: GENEROSITY.

Generosity is a way to open up my heart because I can’t hold onto money and give it away at the same time.  When I open up my bank account, my heart opens too.  AND when I open my heart, so does my bank account.

But be aware – it’s not just a one and done thing.  This is an ongoing surrender as ongoing desires still flood our hearts living in our broken world.

Want contentment?  Start with awareness.  What are your desires?  Give them to the Lord.  Start being aware of the needs around you.  Be generous.  Give sacrificially.  And watch your priorities change.  It’s backwards, yes.  But your heart will follow with contentment.  It sure has in my heart.

So how much should we give in order to be generous? Read more here.