I’m reading The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, a Puritan classic, with a small group of pastors in Sarasota. Isn’t it enough that when I am afflicted I am quiet outwardly and don’t complain to others? I’m learning this is not the case. Jeremiah Burroughs writes in this book the most challenging of definitions: “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

Freely submits? Ok. But delights in? That is going too far. Burroughs writes as if he knows me: “while there is a serene calm upon their tongues these people have blustering storms upon their spirits, and while they keep silence their hearts are troubled and even worn away with anguish and vexation. They have peace and quiet outwardly, but within war from the unruly and turbulent workings of their hearts.”

I can put on the stoic, spiritual pastor’s façade, but don’t look at my heart. Doesn’t Paul teach us in Philippians that it is not the outward expression, but a deep, mysterious inner thing of the soul? “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation…”

God, teach me the secret of contentment in any and every situation; whether healthy or sick, wealthy or pinching pennies, sunny or rainy, cheerful or quarreling kids, bright road ahead or foggy path in the woods, sweet unity in marriage or struggling to see eye to eye. Be enough for me, be my all in all. May my warring heart be calmed as it looks to you alone, the giver of every good gift and the satisfier or souls.