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Sunday, August 01, 2010
Just One More Thing…
By Rev. Jerry Herships
Philippians 4:10-12
10I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. 11Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.
I am going to be hypocrite tonight. I am going to talk about the monkey on my back and it’s been there for a long time. My hope is that you all aren’t carrying the same monkey. My guess is that’s not the case. I’m talking about contentment…or lack thereof.
Even when I know right from wrong, when it comes to contentment, I can slip into not being content at the drop of a hat. I’m not proud of this, but it would be a big fat lie if I said anything different. It’s not unusual for me to want just one more thing…
I think we have been trained to think that somehow the people who make working for God their professional work as having less struggles and less baggage to deal with. This is so untrue. I think we are moving away from that and starting to understand that clergy, and other people who work in the church, are on this journey with us. Ideally we can all walk, together, through the places that we all deal with. This is one of the things I like about Paul. He does brag about what a great disciple of Christ he is, but he also speaks openly about his shortcomings.
Laura and I were talking about this earlier in the week. She pointed out that there are different ways to look at being content and there are different things with which to be content or not be content. We naturally go right to the material stuff but it goes deeper than that and we will be looking at that tonight.
I used to think that contentment meant the same as a lack of ambition. There was a time in L.A. when that was unthinkable. I would do anything and everything to get ahead when I lived in L.A. Contentment wasn’t just about stuff but was about what I had achieved in life as well. What did others think about what I had achieved? Knowing the right people and getting to the top was the goal. At one point I was working at a talent agency for comics during the day and Emceeing at the Improv in Hollywood at night. I would get the Premier magazines power issue that came out every year and cut out every person’s picture and make flash cards so that if the head of production for Paramount came into the club I would know who he was. I wanted to be able to spot the V.P. of casting for ABC at a glance. It was all about getting ahead.
I’m here to tell you that is an exhausting way to live. I was NEVER content. And I was never happy. But no one could say I wasn’t ambitious.
I was warned against this by my brother Gene. At one time he had the highest rated talk show in Canada. Better numbers than Johnny Carson. But I remember the day he told me the story about the first day he got his first talk show. He said that instead of living in the moment and taking a minute to congratulate himself, he said he remembered thinking as soon as the show went off the air, “How can I make the show syndicated?”
This is not the life God has planned for us. When we live in the place where God wants us to live, we live a life of inspiration, not a life of ambition. We live a life where we are constantly asking God, “What direction do you want me to go next?” and then….being okay with where God might lead us. We go from being DRIVEN to being GUIDED…and we are okay with God leading the way.
This is an important distinction. I think when we are moved to change a situation in the world, we are being divinely guided to do so. We are inspired. Anyone in history who wanted to change the world didn’t do it because they were content with the way things were. I believe that anyone who wasn’t happy with women not getting to vote, with slavery, with the struggles of gays and lesbians are people who aren’t ambitious, but rather they are inspired by God to change the world.
When John Wesley, the founder of Methodism wrote, “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can” …these were not the words of a contented person. I would like to believe Wesley was inspired but not ambitious.
This does not mean that life will be easy. Paul tells us he is content in ALL things, even the not so great ones. His hope, satisfaction and comfort lie in something beyond what is happening in his life at any one given moment. Paul is saying that when he is stripped of everything…which happened to him more than once, he was still content. He lived a life guided and inspired by God.
Paul is also telling us that he knew what it was like to also have plenty. He didn’t feel guilty about it. He didn’t put all his faith into having it. He didn’t define himself by it. Paul is telling us that regardless of what the world bestows on us, it is not the determining factor of satisfaction in life.
And we church people aren’t immune to it either. We might cloak it a different way but I have to be very careful I don’t succumb to materialism and ambition. Have inspiration to serve God – absolutely but ambition to succeed on the world’s terms is dangerous. I have to remember whose Kingdom it is that I’m building. It’s not Jerry’s kingdom. It’s God’s kingdom. We work hard, we pray hard, we do the best we can and then allow room for the Holy Spirit to operate.
Now I also wanted to look at this from the angle of what we talked about last week, spiritual gifts. We can often get caught in the trap of not being content with not only the stuff we have or the place we are in life but also of the talents and gifts that others have that we don’t.
God has no interest in making a second best of another person. God is very interested in making a first best of YOU. We are called to constantly find out what is unique to us, what makes us great, what makes us different than everyone else. We spend so much time comparing ourselves to others that we forget to spend time finding our uniqueness. We need to spend time finding those spiritual gifts that God has given to us in a unique combination for just us.
I have to admit I would love to be in better shape, have less debt, and have a better singing voice. Contentment doesn’t mean I stop working out, stop paying off debt, or stop singing (mostly in the shower). What it DOES mean is that I don’t define myself by those things. Contentment means I love me where I am RIGHT now. God does.
All the rest of the stuff is frosting on the cake, a cake that God made for us. When we fully understand just HOW MUCH God loves us…it will be at that moment that we will find our contentment. We will not have to buy shoes and cars and brag and impress and strive and fight to PROVE we are special. We will rest in the knowledge that God thinks we are special.
And that will be enough.
Are you content with who you are? Are you content with what you have at this moment in time? Are you inspired or ambitious?
I pray that the peace and contentment that is offered to all of us will be a gift we recognize sooner rather than later. When the moment comes when ALL of us will know, deep in our bones, that we are loved children of God, not only will we be content, but we will see the arrival of the Kingdom of God.