I love stuff. I love new technology. I love gadgets and gizmos and new fangled contraptions. I love technology with design, with svelte curves. This is evidenced here.

When a new product peaks the horizon, I love to hear of all the technological gadgetry that makes it run and how fast a processor it has or what resolution it is. I also love to imagine myself with said contraption in my possession, which obviously produces a desire to stop imagining and start having. I’ll say it, “Technology makes me struggle with contentment!” This time of year always makes me consider how discontent I can be.

The classic scenario is that my wife asks me for a Christmas list and I struggle to come up with one. In some ways, it is that I am satisfied, but in a whole other way it is because I know the one thing I would really want is beyond our financial means (usually this is some new technology). But I am reminded of 1 Timothy 6:6-8 (NASB95) which says, “But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”

Ouch! There is all sorts of implication wrapped up in these verses, including but not limited to the fact that not even a roof over my head is necessary for me to be content. But it is that first line that is so convicting. Godliness will only equal gain in my life, if I am content. This is saying that true godliness can not be attained while I am discontent. We have so much to be thankful for (we have just celebrated Thanksgiving) and then the day after that we are told how cheap we can get everything we “need”, if we are willing to fight crowds at 4 a.m.! It’s easy for me to point the finger and pshaw those crazy shoppers. But I do the same thing when I pour over a website, drooling at the latest technological wizardry, wishing it were mine and in my mind actually defending the notion that this set of circuit boards and flash memory will satisfy me!

Instead, I must find my contentment in what God has provided me. I have a beautiful loving wife, three healthy and lovely children, a church family that loves and cares for me, all of whom I have the honor and responsibility of serving. Above all I have a God who chose me and made me His own, through a Loving Savior who sacrificed himself for the glory of the Father unto my salvation, I have the Spirit who dwells within me and convicts me (often) and assures me (often) of my position in Christ. I have the Word of God, God’s very breath, that I hold in my hands and have the honor of learning and teaching and preaching. Oh, and as a throw away, I have more stuff than I know what to do with.

Lord help me to find my contentment in You, not in the things that will never last.