"Now godliness with contentment is great gain." 1 Timothy 6:6
I read this and went...huh, now that's fun...kinda
So I sat down the other night with Michelle and asked her what I should study in the Bible on this past Tuesday, as Tuesdays have become my favorite time of concentrated study. Michelle said 1 Timothy, that it was the first to come to her mind. At first I didn't find much that rang any inside clanging gongs, horns, peeps, or squeaks. But then I ran across chapter 6 where Paul is talking to the young Timothy pastor about keeping his charge before the Lord, and by the way written in such eloquent Paulize language. The language reminds me of the writing of someone with a bloody Jesus t-shirt, stone washed jeans, and a long wooden cross dangling from the neck. Of course handing out tracks with dark looking lions and thunderbolts on the front...which isn't all bad...but you know what I mean. Not that Paul would be like this, but phrases like "fight the good fight of faith" and "drown men in destruction and perdition" have a certain vibe to them.
When I was in high school and early college, I actually studied the Bible on my own quite a bit. I remember reading the new testament in something crazy like a month...and the old testament with wonder and a look of confusion. But I distinctly remember during these years that when it came to reading something about holiness, godliness, or righteousness I would think to myself that those things aren't exactly my cup of christian tea. I would skip these verses intentionally and decide against thinking about them. But now when I hear the word righteousness my ears perk up a bit. Maybe because I have read enough now, and grown up enough, to understand that it truly is important.
So now I like this verse.
I think it hits on the simplistic theme I find myself in these days (but honestly not really knowing how to walk out, I am loving my new pair of jeans I bought last night:). I love the thought that even if I have little in this world, I need not desire anything but God. For He is my great gain. He is the thing I'm running after. (And believe me, that thought is comforting knowing that my job is quite possibly the easiest I will ever have) I guess I want to seek the highest pitch of contentment with my life knowing that it is about God. I think the people that truly know that secret are the happiest people in the world. And I think the secret isn't hidden but we find it almost impossible to truly know. I know I do. I get so worked up about my identity, my status and what I'm achieving. Now hear me, I definitely don't think achieving something in my life is a bad thing - but really - we don't take anything out of this world but our relationship with God and as cheesy wooden cross dangling from my neck it sounds - the people we have loved and met along the way. We should be wise to be happy and content in another world, and accommodate our lives to be hidden in Christ, finding ourselves caring a little less about the gain of our little worldly advantages. So God give me godliness with contentement......
glup.
1 comment:
i know godliness and i know contentment, but both of those together trips me up. glad you like your jeans. didn't you write a paper about being hidden in christ once or something along those lines? that sticks out in my mind for some odd reason.
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