“Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.”   Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.”  Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

The Tension of Toil

“I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.”   Ecclesiastes 1:14

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”  Augustine, Confessions

“Part of being wise in this world is learning to accept that we have only very limited access to the big picture.”

David Gibson, Living Backwards

The Beauty of Brevity

“Happiness comes not from controlling your life but realizing that everything you care about most is entangled with forces beyond your control.”  Bobby Jamieson, Everything Is Never Enough

“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.”  Ecclesiastes 5:18

“Because life comes from God’s hand, and all the good things in life do too, both life itself and its million small good things are gifts. Seeing that and living accordingly makes the crucial difference between despair and delight.”  Bobby Jamieson, Everything Is Never Enough

The Custom of Contentment

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  Philippians 4:11-13

“Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.” Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

“Christian contentment is finding delight in God’s wise plan for my life and humbly allowing him to direct me to it.”  Andy Davis, The Power of Christian Contentment

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Recommended:

Everything Is Never Enough (Jamieson)

Living Life Backward (Gibson)

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Burroughs)

The Power of Christian Contentment (Davis)

For Discussion:

What makes contentment difficult to maintain?

How does the encouragement to “be joyful and do good” contrast with a secular view of pleasure or success?

In what area(s) of your life do you struggle to trust God’s timing or purpose?

In thinking about the week ahead, how can you live with an understandi... Speaker: Van Barnhill