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I must make space for the apostle Paul on this subject of ageing. Spurgeon imagines him as 'an old gray-headed man upon the borders of the grave, a prisoner shut up in Nero’s dungeon at Rome'. Looking back over the highs and lows of ministry (and were many lows) he shares some personal thoughts with this fellowship at Phillipi. In his reflections he makes a staggering claim: I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation (Phil 4: 12). Really? He writes that he has learned, past tense, to live contentedly. That really takes us to deep places because, sadly, this quality of life is largely missing. Rather, discontentment marks much living – when Rohr's 'necessary suffering' upsets any hope of contentment.
Paul calls it a secret because it is not obvious. It is not a surface value or experience. Indeed, for many of us it has never rooted within. The first half of life, chasing after goals with disturbing restlessness is marked by busyness and interrupted nights where sillinesses are stirred up out of all proportion seeding resentments, jealousies, and slights to ruffle the spirit and undermine any chance of peace. How can you really know contentment in any and every situation?
Yet the apostle says it can be learned. If we
take the trouble to be taught about it we can actually grow in
contentment. Spurgeon wrote of the College of Contentment
in which Paul had cultivated contentment.
It is unnatural. Not a natural
propensity for our covetousness, discontent and murmuring. That’s normal behaviour. We don’t need to learn how to complain that
comes easily. But cultivating contentment requires immense care. It's nothing less than the new nature of becoming new creation in Christ. At the beginnings we may call Jesus as Lord but we need to learn what it means to trust and live in the Spirit more and more. Spurgeon emphasizes that for Paul it 'cost him some pains. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned and then broke down. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented without learning, or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired gradually'. Only as an older man could he actually speak about
learning in the past tense.
Hmmm...learning in the College of Contentment. There's a challenge.
1 comment:
Am trying to understand the subject of ageing,but do find the subject as you outline it difficult to understand. Is that another sign of getting old? I do Try not to complain or compare with "the old days",but I'm constantly saying: "it never used to be like this";" We always managed without..."; "We just had to get on with it, no counselling, therapy,etc." The Americans are good at their therapies and ologies,and they seem to have exported them to us.
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