This week I have been meditating on Philippians 4:11-13. 

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

Thinking about contentment during a time when life is chaotic and seems to be in constant flux has been good for me. O, to be content whether life is going well (the abounding, having plenty, being well fed that Paul mentions) or whether life is not going the way I'd like (the living in want, being hungry, being in need that Paul refers to). 

I am realizing that I am regularly discontent, even with my normal, pre-quarantine life. And now, I feel I have even more reasons to be discontent with life in such upheaval and the future so uncertain. 

Yet, Paul says he's learned a secret to being content. He's learned how to do this contentment-thing. In times much, much worse than I have ever experienced (in prison, shipwrecked, beaten, hungry, left for dead, etc). 

He says in Philippians 3:8 "I consider everything loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord." 

Paul knows that anything in this world - good, bad, virus, cure, life, death, hunger, abundance - pales in comparison to Jesus Christ and knowing Him. 

That is, these temporary, earthly things do not ultimately matter. They come and go. They go up and down. There is good and bad, constantly. But once this life is done, there will be no more of that flux and change. Only one thing remains. Jesus Christ and knowing Him. 

That is Paul's secret to contentment. 

He can take, he can handle, whatever this life throws at him because He knows One who is greater than all of it. 

He can set his heart on things above, not on earthly things. 

He can take it or leave it and not let his focus be moved from Jesus. 

This is contentent that I long for. 

Peace of heart and soul that goes beyond present circumstances. 

How I thank God that such peace and contentment exists and beyond that, it can be yours and it can be mine!