READ: 1 TIMOTHY 6: 8-9
Yet true godliness with contentment is true wealth. (V. 6)
It happens with the onset of golf season every spring reliable as an atomic clock. Despite having a really good golf game by my personal standards—one of the best years on my senior golf league—yet I began my search for a new golf club. Did I need the club, absolutely not! All of my current ones worked just fine as reflected by last year’s performance. Despite my resolve from prior years to stop trying to waste money on clubs I think are needed to improve my game, I once again fell prey to the “I can do even better with a new advanced club” thought process. In reality, each spring just before golf begins in earnest, I have spent way too much money for clubs that have done nothing to improve my game. In short, I would have done better to get a few lessons, for it is the swinger and not the club!
Making things even worse, I spent too many hours researching clubs to meet my perceived need. Time, the finite resource which God has blessed me with. Time that I could have spent writing devotions; time that I could have spent talking with friends and family; time that I could have spent talking with Jesus or reading the words needed to buttress my faith; or time I could have wisely used at the direction the Spirit. Unfortunately, my wants won out and I bought a club. When it arrived, I quickly discerned it was just another want gone array and I sent it back a few days later. I have a credit at the golf shop as they do not refund money, but maybe—just maybe I will use it to buy something a I truly need like new golf shoes or gloves which actually do wear out.
Paul teaches us to be content when “if we have enough.” But having enough is subjective in nature and left to the discretion of the person who poses the rhetorical question—“When is enough enough?” Frankly, I believe we all know in our minds and hearts when we have what we truly need to lead a comfortable life and that is more than enough to satisfy our actual needs. But we are people driven by our passions, like mine for golf, and we must be careful not to let them cause us to become anxious or discontent over what we would like to have. We need to learn to be content with what the Lord has provided even though it may not be everything we want. A want driven passion produces “clubs of discontent”—don’t believe it feel free to give me a call.
PAUSE FOR REFLECTION AND PRAYER
Have you truly learned to separate your needs from your wants? Ask God to provide what you need and help you eliminate your desire for things you don’t need.
Dear Jesus, help me align my true needs with your will for my life.