Content in Christ

The most prolific weed in the Christian life is pride,

the rarest flower is contentment.

This morning over coffee a friend said, in just a few words, something that pierced my soul.  He's a good friend of many years and has earned the right to say the hard things to me.  If you had been listening in it would have seemed to be nothing at all, but the words sunk deep into me with this realization....

I am not content!

I'm quite aware that pride is my most prolific weed and contentment my most rare flower, but without realizing it I had let the weeds of pride choke out that rare flower of contentment.

It happens so subtly, just as weeds slowly take over a garden, but it happened.  

I so want to be content in Christ.  To be content with being nobody, resting in him to be all I need.  And yet, the weeds grow, pride sneaks in.  

Paul wrote of this, that this rare flower of contentment is something to be learned when he said,

"I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." 

It's so elusive.  The reality we often find ourselves in pricks our ego, offends our pride and tempts us to be offended.  It's so subtle!

Once more this morning I had to come back to this- I will only find joy and peace as I find it in my contentment in Christ alone.  To rest in Christ as the place of ultimate contentment is the best weed killer on the market.

So what does it mean to be content in Christ?  It means my identity, my worth, my place in this world, my reputation and everything else about me is tossed in the trash bin that I might be in him alone.

And, if he does anything with that....all the better because he will get the glory.

This rare flower of contentment is beautiful and the fragrance is wonderful, but if I'm not careful the weeds of pride will choke it out.  Once more today I'm rediscovering the beautiful and rare flower of contentment in Christ.