Contentment

 

Contentment translates a Greek word apatheia which sounds close to apathy, doesn’t it?  Apathy speaks of indifference which is exactly how it was valued by Stoic contemporaries of Paul.  Stoics held that contentment or self-sufficiency was a virtue that an individual gained when they learned to be indifferent to their circumstances.  They gained independence not needing anyone or anything in a state of complete detachment from outside things.  Unruffled by whatever life threw up.   

When the apostle Paul uses this word it could not be more different.  Richard Foster wrote about the state of relinquishment. when 'we begin to enter a grace-filled releasing or our will and a flowing into the will of the Father.....from struggling to the releasing...this prayer is a bona fide letting go, but it is a release with hope...God is not destroying the will be transforming it so that we can freely will what God wants'.  What an extraordinary word! Relinquishment means to release or let go.

I think this radical prayer of relinquishment has much to do with living the second half of life in God's way.  

Today, O Lord, I yield myself to you.  

May your will be my delight today.

May your way have perfect sway in me.

May your love be the pattern of my living.

I surrender to you

my hopes,

my dreams,

my ambitions.

Do with them what you will, when you will, as you will.

I place into your loving care

my family,

my friends,

my future.

Care for them with a care that I can never give.

I release into your hands

my need to control,

my craving for status,

my fear of obscurity.

Eradicate the evil, purify the good, and establish your

kingdom on earth.

For Jesus’ sake,

Amen.