1 Timothy 6:6

One summer we were sitting on the porch, and there was a boy who was skating up and down the street on one roller skate. Someone asked where his other skate was. “I ain’t got any other,” he replied. “One is enough if you ain’t got two.” That young man had already learned what some of us may never learn in this life.

John Newton spoke of contentment among the angels. He said if one was sent to earth to lead an empire, and the other to sweep a street, they would feel no inclination to trade employments.

They sure do things different in Heaven; let’s face it, our culture is rarely satisfied. It seems like the more we have the more we want. The weather is usually too something, the food could use a little more of this or a little less of that; and time is always too early or else it is late.

Jesus said that some people were like children playing in the street. They complain to their friends, “We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t weep.” (Luke 7:32)

A good Lenten discipline might be to work on decreasing our complaining, and increasing our ability to be pleased with life. We must learn to be content. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.” The old Gospel singers used to sing, “I’m Satisfied, I’m satisfied, ever since that wonderful day (of salvation) my soul’s been satisfied.”

Perhaps one of our challenges for Lent is not what we are giving up, but learning to be content with what we have.