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| (Greenfield Village, Dearborn) |
It's early Saturday morning. The temperature outside is 35. Not bad, for January in Michigan. But,
If it was warmer, then I would be content.
If it was warmer, then I would be content.
This is an "If... then..." statement. An “If.. then…”
statement is a conditional statement.
For example: If it rains, then the
ground gets wet.
Which means: On the condition of rain, the ground gets wet.
On the condition of warmer weather, then my heart would be satisfied.
On the condition of warmer weather, then my heart would be satisfied.
A conditional statement is also called a
hypothetical statement. It’s a hypothesis. It’s hypothetical, not actual. It
describes a possible state of affairs, not an actual state of affairs.
Human longing is about possible states of
affairs, and unfulfilled desires. For example:
If only I could be/have/achieve ________, then I
would be happy/content.
The first part of the conditional statement
expresses the longing, the second its fulfillment.
The world of conditional thinking is the world
of perpetual discontent. This is because fulfillment of our many longings
rarely brings satisfaction. Once we get that thing we long for, it won’t be long
before desire returns, and we are, again, longing.
The single person longs to be married; the
married couple longs for children; the parents long for grandchildren; the
grandparents long to see their grandchildren get married. In this life there is
perpetual incompleteness.
Not all longing is bad. But many of our good
longings this side of eternity will remain unfulfilled. This reality could
leave us in unremitting devastation if we become enslaved to conditional thinking.
The way to freedom in a world of many
unfulfilled dreams is to be released from the inner “If… then…” Biblically,
this is called contentment.
Real contentment is non-circumstance dependent.
It is not a result of fulfilled desires. One no longer thinks, If these
circumstances happen, then I will be content.
Paul wrote:
“I don’t have a sense of
needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever
my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with
little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands
full or hands empty.”[1]
Conditional thinking demands circumstances to
align with desires. Unless one is healed of
conditional thinking, one will experience perpetual discontentment.
The Jesus-solution is to eliminate perpetual
discontent by revealing the heart’s true resting place. “Whatever I have,
wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I
am.”[2]
Years ago one of my
baby sons, David, died. If only David were alive, then I would be
satisfied. The longing expressed in the antecedent clause of this
conditional statement is pure. But the consequent is false. It is false because
things run deeper than life’s circumstances, fulfilled or unfulfilled. The
idea that I will be forever satisfied in this life if only one of my
circumstances would change is an illusion.
To realize this is to focus heart and
mind on something else. I have discovered that my soul finds rest in God
alone. When I direct and order my life to rest in the One who makes me what I
am the tears of my unfulfilled longings are not polluted by unfulfilled
circumstances.
The soul no longer longs, but rests.
Soul-rest is the birthplace of contentment.
The soul no longer longs, but rests.
Soul-rest is the birthplace of contentment.
