Is being contented the same as being complacent? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, complacent means ‘feeling so satisfied with your own abilities or situation that you feel you do not need to try any harder’. Some elements of laziness mixed with pride (I am thinking of the story of the hare and the tortoise) reside in those who are complacent. Consider the Parable of the Talents – the first person received 5 talents and produced 5 more; the second person received 2 talents and produced 2 more; the third person who had received 1 talent went off to dig a hole in the ground and buried the only talent he had (Matthew 25.14-18). The third servant was complacent or even plain lazy. He didn’t make any effort to try and do something with the talent. No wonder his Master upon his return called him ‘a wicked and lazy servant’ (Matthew 25.26). If he had tried to do something with the talent and even lost money in the process, no one would fault him for being complacent. At least he tried.
On the other hand, to be content is to be in a state of peaceful happiness. The Apostle Paul said: 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4) For Paul, he had learnt to be happy and at peace regardless the circumstance, whether in plenty or in want, in abundance or in need. Contentment and complacency are therefore not the same. When we are contented, we possess a positive attitude towards whatever life throws at us. There is no hint of laziness or pride. When we are complacent, we possess a negative attitude by which we conduct our lives. We are either too lazy to improve our circumstance or too smug to want to do anything about it.
We can learn the secret of contentment when we find our satisfaction, security and significance in Christ and in him alone. Didn’t Christ say to his disciples: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst”? (John 6.35) When we come to Jesus, he fully satisfies so that we don’t need to run after anything else. This is true of our salvation. Jesus said: “It is finished.” (John 19.30) He has done everything he could to secure our redemption and to deliver us from the condemnation of sin and death. Nothing more needs to be done. As long as we have Jesus, it is enough. We don’t need Jesus and something else for us to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith in him. We also don’t need Jesus and something else for our life to be meaningful and abundant. Having Jesus alone completes our life. He is the one and only who can fill the God shaped vacuum in our hearts. Once that vacuum is filled by him, we are fully satisfied and therefore completely contented in him.
However, if our attitude is such that we want to have Jesus but also at least $10,000 in our bank before we feel secure, then our security is not in Jesus alone. If we are not a graduate and we don’t live in private housing and cannot afford to eat in posh restaurants or go for luxurious holidays, and we need all these to make us feel significant, then we are not finding our significance in Jesus alone. If we are singles or we are barren and keep lamenting over the fact that should we remain that way, our life is not complete, then yet again we are saying that our satisfaction does not lie in Jesus alone. If so, we will never be contented. More frighteningly, our discontentment can drive us towards idolatry. We will work so hard to earn our first $10,000 and work even harder to earn our first million because greed can never be satisfied. It is insatiable. Chasing paper qualifications and upgrading our gadgets, cars and houses so that we impress others with our lifestyles can be an all-consuming endeavour. The love of money can cause us to fall into many temptations and traps that will plunge us into ruin and destruction on the home front, in our spiritual life, and even in terms of our health and sanity. Those who are discontented with their singlehood will either scare people away because of their desperateness or they will blindly plunge into marriage and suffer the consequences of making marriage an idol. Idolatry always deceives in that it promises heaven but delivers hell. Israel was happy to worship Yahweh but Yahweh was not enough for them, they also wanted to worship a whole host of idols alongside Yahweh to gain greater security. We are often no different from the Israelites who had sinned against God greatly. If Jesus alone does not satisfy, we will find ourselves embracing Jesus alongside the 21st century idols, failing to love God with all our heart, soul and might.
I am not saying that we should not try to improve our current situation, find a better job, earn more money, further our education or find a life partner? It does not mean that we are supposed to passively sit back and watch life go by. It does mean that if we are led to pursue all these, they should be done within the framework of seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and of us being the salt and light of the earth. It means that we cannot be so obsessed with all these pursuits that our walk with the Lord (Bible reading, prayer, worship, service) is compromised, our Christian values and ethics are compromised, our time with family and for ourselves (our Sabbath rest) are compromised. It also means that in everything we do – the pursuit of academic excellence, business expansion, progression up the corporate ladder – all should be done as an act of worship to God, all to be done for the glory of God. If this is so, we will likely not make those compromises. And even if we fail to attain all that we have set out to achieve, we are cool about it. We don’t feel disillusioned with God; we are not angry with him; we are not disappointed. Contentment prevails. We believe that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. We believe that our security lies fully in him because he has said: ‘Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’ (Isaiah 41.10) We believe that our significance lies fully in him because he has said: ‘The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.’ (Zephaniah 3.17) We believe that our satisfaction lies fully in him because he too has said: ‘For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.’ (Psalm 107.9)