So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1, 2 MSG)
A while back I wrote about being flummoxed as I was pondering the ways God was working in me and through me. I really didn’t understand all that was unfolding (hence the flummoxed condition) but I think I have settled on a better way of describing it. I am in a state of expectant contentment. Do you see the problem with this statement? Do you see why I am a bit confused? How does someone exist in a both a state of contentment and expectation? A state of having enough but expecting more? How would you feel? Flummoxed?
Let me explain how I exist in this seemingly contradictory condition. The themes of materials I have been reading lately focus on simplifying ones life both in terms of material goods and slowing the pace of life. As I look over my life I think I’m a fairly content person. Alright, the new iPhone 5S will be mine soon, but other than that I am not in want of anything. I have a great job that I enjoy and I think I am pretty good at. I have a wonderful wife who is also my friend. My kids, they are good, sometimes making good choices, sometimes not, but that is what growing up is all about. House, friends, church, good, good, and good. This does not mean that I don’t work on my relationship or the things that I have. It means I am not always looking for bigger, better, or younger house, car/technology, or wife. It also doesn’t mean I have any dreams or ambitions. It means that for right now I am content with what I have and where I am in life. So this is the content side of the equation, but what about the expectant side?
I am expectant in that God will bring into my life changes and challenges that will strengthen my character, challenge my faith, or move me out of my comfort zone. At least that is what I have been sensing over the last few months. One example is a ministry I am involve in at church. I was content being a part of this ministry team serving other. At the end of January, through a series of events I was ask to take over leading this ministry. This change came about because I was listening and responding to God’s prompt in my alone time with God. There are been a number of other little things that have placed me in this condition of expectation. Perhaps I should explain what I mean by expectation. I don’t expect things because they are owed me or because I deserve them. Rather, when I use this work “expectant” I mean that I am actively listening or watching for what God is saying or doing in my life. If I am being transformed daily by the Spirit then I should be watching and listening for what or how these changes are occurring in my life.
For me living a life of expectant contentment is about being satisfied with what I have in the here and now and expecting God to work in me to shape me into who He wants me to be tomorrow or the next day or the next year.
The question for you to think about is “What would your life look like if you were living in a state of expectant contentment?