The Way of Contentment

I rose early for devotions, but it wasn’t starting off well. I read for the third time the Swahili letter from one of our national pastors telling me he was leaving his church and moving to another area.

For five years I had worked with this young man, teaching him the Scriptures and helping him start his church in the bush area of Kenya. It’s not easy to find willing, educated Turkanans to be pastors. I regretted his decision, but my overwhelming concern was for Pastor Diyo himself. His letter expressed the feelings of so many servants of God, regardless of where they live-discouraged, defeated, unhappy.

My mind wandered back over my fifteen years in the ministry. I knew what Pastor Diyo was feeling. I know what it’s like to work hard but never feel I’m accomplishing anything worthwhile for the Master. I could sympathize with his frustration of working with people whose response and spiritual growth was very slow.

My first pastorate was in an air force town. Equipped with a zeal surpassing all common sense, I set out to build my ministry for God. Each time our church finally got the right personnel to fill the positions necessary for growth, Uncle Sam would transfer half the teaching staff. Every six months we’d slide back to square one. After three years I left, discouraged and defeated.

Discontentment in the ministry is certainly not unusual: in fact, it’s probably the norm. Contentment doesn’t come naturally, and not all situations are conducive for it, but the last seven years of my ministry have been most fulfilling, a marked contrast to my first pastorate.

What makes the difference between a servant who is frustrated and one who is content? Here’s what I’ve learned.

Contentment comes in exercising your spiritual gifts. The average pastor is expected to be a jack of all trades with the ability to master them all. But the Scriptures clearly teach that all Christians, including pastors, are only given certain spiritual gifts for the profit of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:4-7). Discontentment sets in when people want to minister, but their gifts don’t coincide with their duties. Many pastors are performing tasks, day after day, that they don’t enjoy and are not spiritually equipped to perform.

Though I like people, I am not a “people person.” My gift is not gab, and though I worked at them diligently, my pastoral visitation and counseling left a lot to be desired.

Some people love to stand before a congregation to preach. When I have to preach, I get the bends. Yet, as a pastor I preached twice a Sunday for six years. Is it any wonder those years were filled with discouragement?

Most missionaries are builders, workers with their hands. I am not gifted in this area; I have trouble driving a nail straight. Though I travel hundreds of miles in the desert alone, if my vehicle broke down, I would be stranded, for I’m no mechanic. There was a time I felt discouraged about this, but then the Holy Spirit showed me that not all his servants must be carbon copies. I began to see that the Lord wants me to exercise my gifts, not fret over talents I don’t have.

My strong suit, my spiritual gift, is teaching. As a pastor, the only task I really enjoyed was teaching my Sunday school class and Wednesday night Bible study. Here in Kenya I spend most of my hours writing study materials in Swahili and teaching in a Bible institute. I’ve never been so content. Why? Because I’m doing a job I’m equipped to handle.

Contentment comes when you enjoy your ministry. You only enjoy a ministry when you’re doing the work the Holy Spirit has equipped you to do.

Contentment is enjoying your ministry right now where you are. If you cannot enjoy the daily ministry, it’s a cinch you won’t enjoy the accomplished goal. If you don’t have satisfaction in the journey, you won’t be satisfied when you reach the destination.

I wish I’d been able to see thirteen years ago that the air force wasn’t sabotaging my ministry-it was extending it around the globe!

Contentment is financial stability, not financial security. My salary when I entered the pastorate was $57.50 a week. From that handsome sum I paid our rent, utilities, food, car expenses . . . everything. Of necessity I learned the importance of managing finances. Looking back on those lean years, I honestly don’t know how we made it. The Lord was gracious. Though we didn’t have much, we were never in debt.

The number one killer of contentment is financial instability. Many pastors never settle into the ministry of Christ because they are married to their credit cards. Financial stability does not come with an increase of money supply. Government spending is a classic example that throwing more money into a program does not insure stability.

Blessed is the man who learns the art of money management. Regardless of his annual income, he will know contentment.

Contentment is knowing the true value of things. Lack of self-control is a sign of instability, especially in the area of possessions.

I have a pastor friend who is obsessed with clothes. I’ve accused him of spending more time in men’s shops than in his study. He’s never content with his wardrobe; there’s always something he must buy.

Another pastor I know would be absolutely red-faced driving last year’s model.

Another pastor finally saved enough money to purchase his own home. Unfulfilled, he continued to invest his money until he finally left the ministry so he could keep up with his investments.

Perhaps it was necessary for me to move to Kenya and work with destitute tribes before I could understand the meaning of Agur’s prayer, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion” (Prov. 30:8).

There’s never a time I enter an American church that I don’t think of the Christians in Kenya meeting in their mud buildings. Each time I look into my closet filled with shirts and trousers I think of those in the desert who have nothing. At meal time I think of those who go to bed hungry.

Forgive me for sounding like a missionary, but I’ve learned that things, though nice to have, are not really all that valuable. Happy is the man who can say with Paul, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content” (1 Tim. 6:8).

Contentment doesn’t mean a problem-free life. Paul was in prison when he wrote, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Phil. 4:11). Contentment is a state of mind. We determine our outlook on life by our attitude. Or, as Abraham Lincoln said, “A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.” If a person has his priorities straight, he will be content, even in the midst of a storm.

Contentment doesn’t mean a person is lazy, lacks goals, or is not self-motivated. The pastor exercising spiritual gifts will never be content with mediocrity. If there is a tribe yet to be reached, a book yet to be written, a visit yet to be made, the minister of Christ will not rest until the task has been completed. It is actually discontentment that destroys self-motivation. Discouragement saps energy and the desire to set goals.

The fear of contentment is a cultural disease. A Chinese philosopher stated, “The most outstanding characteristic of the Eastern civilization is to know contentment, whereas that of the Western civilization is not to know contentment.”

Contentment is something not easily or quickly learned. The late Dr. Noel Smith told an old friend from his hospital bed, “Just about the time a man learns how to live, it’s time to die.” Sadly, for some people, they never learn how to live. They never learn, as 1 Timothy 6:6 says, that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” That balance is also the way of effective ministry.

-Richard Lewis

Kitale, Kenya