Contentment

Contentment

Personal

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Blake Leath

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 
—1 Timothy 6:10

• • •

Beneath the stars and beside a roaring fire, I stood and listened to the words of a wise man the other night; one who has literally seen it all. “My mentor told me,” he began, “that all manner of depravity can be traced to five simple sources: sex, substances, money, power, and pride.”

All my life I'd heard about pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

I don't care how one counts these things, as they feel like "six of one, half a dozen of the other," be they five or seven!

The bottom line is that—after 49 years on this giant, orbiting hairball—I'd say the path to peace is not paved with good intentions or great deeds, but rather, with contentment.

Faith, hope, and love are the inward and outward manifestations of a life deeply rooted and well-lived, but contentment is a consequence of self-control (one of nine fruits of the spirit) or, said another way, without self-control there can be no contentment.

Happily, contentment also leads to peace (and peace is a force multiplier), so consider it a two, three, five, seven, or ninefer.

Want for too much more, and one welcomes the wrath of self-destruction into his head and heart.