Practicing Contentment

In our modern culture, we have more, but seem to enjoy less. No matter how hard we work or how much money we accumulate, on the whole we’re not happier. Instead, our society seems to be obsessed with wanting something more, something new, something next (Christianity Today.org)

The title of the page is ‘Practicing Contentment’. Living in this city for a while teaches me that too. This is also something I observed from the life of the, sorry, shallow urbanites. I know many people who worship wealth, and cars, and houses, and jewelries and branded clothing / shoes / bags and other luxurious goods or assets. Look at the crowded shopping malls. The hunt of and race for wealth sometimes is sickened. Needless to say, we need only to open our eyes in the morning, watching television, check the news portals, or unfold the newspapers and magazines just to find out that these kind of people alive and live well in this city, country, and in the world I suppose.

The group of 45 young women who were poured with wealth and cars and jewelries and money from AF, the money launderer of a famous religious based political party, precisely exemplifies how sickening this mammon worship is. Some people may argue that these women did that for their family or for sexual pleasure or any other motivations only they and God knows. Yet, my opinion is still, money is the root of all evil, I remain biblical I must say. The temptation of living a good life, a hard work-free life, wearing branded clothing or handbags, driving luxury new car, spendthrift have poisoned these women’s head. I imagine how they would enjoy driving through the street and looking to the poor pedestrians and motor bikers and public transport passengers outside who work hard to make ends meet. How they would enjoy looking down to people who wear non-famous brands, looking down and say “Lucky I’m not one of them”.

This world we live in has been so much altered from the point where it was created. It is now a corrupt, materialistic and unfair world. A world that has been stained. People are led to think of their value from what they wear, or what they drive, or what they possessed or what they are capable to purchase or afford or how they look. And at certain point where they think they lack of those, they simply cease to exist; they lose their existence before others. As if human being is all about their material attributes. And when they don’t possess any, they think that this world is going to end, that they are not worth living anymore, that they’re unloved and unappreciated.

I am not saying that those materials are not necessary. We still need some to be functioned. But there’s a level of necessity, how much we must keep and how much we must give away for good causes. As the Bible says, the faithful and their children and grandchildren will not beg for breads, so that promise should be sufficient for the believers. As the lily of the valley is not worried about what they wear, yet God give them more beautiful outfits than Solomon’s, -the thinking of wearing luxurious expensive outfits to make one beautiful is vain.  And the awareness that there’s only so much food we can digest in our stomach, no matter how expensive the restaurant’s menu is, is as logical as being aware of the wild sparrows that don’t plant and harvest but eat sufficiently and not hungry.

The key is contentment once again. How would you feel contented about what you have? How would you give thanks and feel grateful every time it’s rain and thunder outside and you have a place to shelter and a bed to lay your head warmly? And you have a shelf where the food is stored? And the books and the music. They are all beautiful enough and more than enough to make us give thankful for our life.

Well, others may argue that this is a typical un-ambitioned person’s argument for lack of ambition they have. For their laziness to pursue higher targets in life. Less progressive. Ummm…I have lots of reason saying that it’s not. What is an ambition anyway? More to argue on that but now I must stop here. It's weekend and there are too many ambitions to catch today :D