Contentment Is Entirely Up To You

September 4, 2024

Leadership Notes

     Forced choice. What would you pick? Polar vortex or heat dome?

     I can confidently speak for me and my family and answer polar vortex. Especially after last Friday. To paraphrase a line from Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, “it wasn’t a fit day for man nor beast.” That dome last week was heatin’!

     Excepting anomalous weather spikes, we are blessed to live in Michigan. I once knew a couple who, every vacation they took, that place was paradise and they were going to move there, someday. It changed with every vacation. It was a different worldview. I trust you’re as happy where you live as I am. Let’s face it, even under heat domes or snow-maggedons, we faithfully say, “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

     Someone recently posited the following:

“I’d love to see tons of videos from all over the United States

showcasing the theme America is Cool! Like, what’s cool in your

area, geography, history, whatever, that’s just kinda low-key or

high-key awesome? Like an anti-critical America theory.”

     I don’t know about you, but Michigan is a “just about right” kinda place to live. What gets your motor running about Michigan? As I’ve always believed, contentment is a state of mind, not the state of the place in which you live. No person, place, or thing in this life can fill you with joy. That is entirely up to you, rooted in your worldview. How do you see life?

     Pastor Joel E. Kim makes this wonderful observation in Tabletalk Magazine:

Whether in private or public, in the church or in the world, before

friend or foe, or in person or online, we live consistently in a

manner worthy of someone who is loved by Christ, is saved by

Christ, and belongs to Christ.

And that is why, to paraphrase Paul, no matter what situation or circumstance we find ourselves in, we are content.

     And now, your Moment of Spurgeon:

“THE CHURCH DOES NOT DETERMINE WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES.

THE BIBLE DETERMINES WHAT THE CHURCH MUST TEACH.”

     With Much Love and Affection,

                       Richard

p.s. A first grade teacher asked her students, “If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where would you go?” One little dude answered, “Dairy Queen.”