Contentment: The Joy of Small Things

But godliness with contentment is great gain. 1Ti 6:6

Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. 1Co 7:20  

Days of Small Things

There is a scented mystery enwrapped in small things. Big things are the dreams of mankind. But big things rarely exude the whole aroma.

It’s different with small things, small people, small houses, and small gardens. The book of Genesis opens in a garden. It closes in a grave. These are the sort of small things which leave a mark in the heart.  

Christ was born in a manger. He felt the wood with his fingers. He watched closely the way of sparrows, and the lilies of the field halted him in his steps.

And haven’t you read the words of king Lemuel, in the prophecy that his mother taught him, and didn’t you feel the whole skin tighten around you like a drum? “What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?” (Pro 31:2). 

Which brings, immediately in the mind, the words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal. And aren’t you struck with the sheer smallness of this life?

Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? Pro 30:2-4  

These, and small things like this, go up to make my day, every day, in the house of my pilgrimage. What kept the psalmist alive in the nights? Songs!

I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.

Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. 

Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. 

I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law. Psa 119:52-55  

Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. Psa 42:8  

What is it that keeps you awake the whole night?

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Pro 30:5-9  

Fifty Years of Anxiety and the Rest

I was long in that prison. I saw no day or night. Except a long dark tunnel which led to nowhere. I forgot the small exhortation: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” God makes the whole difference. He lifts the curtain and we are able to see clearly again. Where the head saw a very big thing, God sees a very small thing indeed, like a mustard seed!

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Mat 6:25-30 

Here is Christ in perfect stillness of the day and night. “Be still, and know that I am God.” We drown slowly in the raucous din. We miss the breath at the rate the world is turning. It wheels fast, as at the throw of a dice. And when the eyes adjust, the light has usually left. In my house I can feel the four corners of my room with my hands.

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Mat 5:3-9  

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Mat 7:13-14  

And then they hang him on a cross. And there was no one to bury him but only one small man. Yet in that smallness was the cauldron of the world’s greatest love being knit. “(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luk 2:35).  

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. Mat 7:24-27  

The Will of God and Man’s Desire

No sooner had Adam and Eve lost paradise, than their generation was soon up and making new big dreams. We dream of this world all the time, but it’s really heaven that we want.

It’s that itch for big. But big has no end. What happens when a man has reached the top of a mountain? Does the itch stop?

These are the small things that keep me awake the whole night. What is the lake of fire? What is life, and what is death? And what is eternity?

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 

That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. Deu 30:19-20

So we struggle about the will of God. We struggle, many times, unnecessarily. Let every man abide in the thing wherein he was called. I am a dreamer. I have always dreamt. What are you? Have you been called, being single, or have you been called being married? My dreams are small. They fit in a single room. But having big dreams is also ok. Hope is not ashamed. Baruch was asked not to dream big, whereas Solomon was given a blank cheque. Which one would you choose?

Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. 1Co 7:18-24  

So Paul exhorts: Abide there. Stay there. Be anxious for nothing. Our diversity is what adds to our beauty.

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. 

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Php 4:4-7  

Have a blessed small or big day!