CONTENTMENT
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
MATTHEW 5:5 MSG
“YOU ARE BLESSED WHEN YOU’RE CONTENT WITH JUST WHO YOU ARE – NO MORE, NO LESS...”
YOU BE YOU
I have a saying I use often when trying something new, “fake it til you make it”. You see, I am really good at figuring stuff out on the fly, making it look passible and then sweating it out later. I feel pretty decent at most things, but not amazing at anything. I used to struggle with “imposter syndrome”. I would feel like I didn’t belong, whether because of a lack of credentials, experiences or a personality trait I didn’t have. I found myself trying to measure up against others, hoping they didn’t find out that I was an actual fraud. I didn’t really have anything to offer, I was just getting by well enough to fly under the radar. It’s only been in recent years that I have purposefully explored my own unique gifts and calling. This type of exploration is less about a personality quiz and more about living so close in community with others that they see things in you that you didn’t see, they call them out and challenge you to use them and develop more. By default I am an over- analyzing worrier. If I am not careful I can be so consumed with what I am not, that I fail to live into what I am. Learning to accept the person God created me to be, and living into that calling has been a long road of finding contentment and one that I am still on. I cannot do all the things you can do, and when I try to I come up exhausted and discouraged. It’s okay to be challenged and try new things, but it’s not okay to be living as a fraud because you feel some sort of false expectation to live up to. In the CEB translation Matthew 5:5 says, “Happy are people who are humble”. Other translations say “blessed are the gentle”. The Message translates this as contentment. If I am so proud that I do not recognize who God created me to be, that I go out searching to be someone else there is no humility in that. I am unsatisfied in that life. The moment I am able to rest in the reality that God has created me uniquely for this time, to bring my unique set of gifts to the table to benefit His Kingdom...that is when I find contentment. I hold loosely my desires and instead seek after His.
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