Contentment

In this life, I will always be living in something I don’t want to be.

Right now, I tend to believe I’m a victim of that “something,” whatever stage of life I’m in. I start to think that God is putting this on me, and because of that, I don’t have to like it or have a good attitude about it. I can try to escape it. I can try to earn my way through it—to be good enough to get approval and finally move on.

But all that does is leave me exhausted from striving, discouraged when nothing seems to change, or completely checked out when I can’t take it anymore and run to momentary pleasures.

In all of these scenarios, I’m just trying to cope and soothe myself through something I’ve decided is outside my control—so I label myself a victim.

But that isn’t true.

I chose God. I daily choose to obey Him—His direction, His leading. Even if I think, “Well, I didn’t choose what this obedience would look like. I didn’t know it would mean working this job or dealing with this kind of person,” that doesn’t give me permission to pout or shut down.

Yes, I can feel sad. I can feel frustrated. Things can be hard and not what I expected. But I want to choose a better attitude on the other side of that.

When I chose God, I chose everything that comes with Him.

And honestly, I would rather have God—with all the uncomfortable, frustrating, less-than-ideal things—than not have Him at all and end up with a life that’s completely unanchored.

So the question becomes: can I let my soul say, “Yeah, this is hard… but I’m still going to praise”? Can I find joy here? Can I take ownership of the life I’m living?

Because I always have a choice.

God isn’t forcing me to choose Him—I am choosing Him. And I need to take responsibility for the fact that what I’m living in right now is part of that choice.

And if I truly have that freedom, then I also have the freedom to say:“Yes, I could chase that thing over there—but it’s not what’s best for me right now.”

I can choose contentment in the life I have.

In the discomfort. In the waiting. In dealing with difficult people.

I can handle it—not because the situation is easy, but because escape isn’t where freedom and joy are found.

Freedom is in knowing I can experience joy and contentment right here.

I may not control my circumstances on a big scale, but I do have a say in how I respond. There will be hard days. There will be people who are difficult to deal with. But it gets even harder when I let those things define whether my day is good or bad.

If I believe God has called me into something, then maybe it’s not actually mine to fight.

He’s the one who deals with people. He’s the one who handles the outcome.

My role is to trust Him more—and to release more to Him.

Yes, I need to pray through all of this. I need to ask for His guidance, His direction, His leading. There may come a time when He calls me out of it.

But if He doesn’t, then I trust that He is fighting for me.

And I get to find joy right here, right now.