Choosing Contentment
The apostle Paul didn’t say anything about finding contentment in vehicles … or even shelter. Food and clothing ought to lead to contentment.
I think Heather is winking at the camera in this picture.
Remember how I told you a couple of weeks ago that my days with Heather (my 2009 Chevy Impala) might be numbered?
I’m not so sure now.
A friend reminded me to pray about finding a new vehicle. I had been praying for guidance about finding the right vehicle, but his reminder caused me to continue. And the answer might turn out to be different than I expected.
Another friend told me about a good used car he heard about at his family’s July 4 picnic. I test drove it over the weekend and liked what I saw. My plan was to call the owner (I’ll call him Jack) on Monday afternoon and let him know where I stood when it came to selling my car, so I could buy his.
Monday afternoon, I headed to the shop where I get my oil changed. My oil change guy has expressed an interest in the past to buy Heather if I ever wanted to sell her. When I arrived, they told me he is no longer employed there. They also didn’t have his contact information.
Hmmm, OK.
I called Jack to let him know what was going on.
“I’ve changed my mind,” Jack said. Jack is in his eighties, and he tells it like it is. That’s what I learned about him during the test drive. I like that because it meant I could trust him. “It’s a good car, and I think I’m just going to keep it.”
Fair enough.
As I climbed back into Heather later that day, a sense of contentment sort of swept over me. She’s old and has cost me a lot of money, but she’s in reasonably good shape now, as far as I know. And she has relatively low miles on her.
Reflecting on the events of the day, I realized that perhaps this was an opportunity to embrace contentment with what I have, rather than seeking something else.
From what I hear, I can’t expect much more than 100,000 miles on an Impala, but when I look up used Impalas on Facebook Marketplace, I’m seeing one with 229,000 miles, another with 200,000 and still another with 164,000 – all the same age as Heather. So exceptions do exist.
I’m reminded of what the apostle Paul wrote to his young charge in 1 Timothy 6:2–8 (ESV, emphasis added):
Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
