All Charged Up

 I first noticed it on a trip, my phone had been plugged in the car but it was almost dead when I arrived. Weird. I figured the car charger was on the fritz. Then one night it didn’t charge. I began to see that something was wrong with my phone, my relatively new phone that I paid a lot of good money for. So I called the company.

  You know how that went. I tried to talk to a person that wasn’t a native English speaker while they said my name over and over and they were going to be helpful. I just wanted my phone fixed. They said they would send me a new charger.

  I wasn’t happy. I'd tried several different chargers on the phone and it had the same problem. Why weren’t they helping me! So after some voice raising, they agreed to send me a new phone.

  I still wasn’t happy. Now it was going to be a week without my phone! So I tried to plug it in one more time.

  You know what happened next. It charged perfectly. I tried again. It worked again.

  I wasn’t happy. I go thru all this rigmarole and now it’s working! So I pouted and tried to figure my next move.

  The next day the phone battery ran down and I plugged it in and well you know what happened. It wouldn’t charge.

I was happy. At least for a moment, you see it was broken and getting a new phone was a good idea. Then I wasn't happy when I realized I was once again going to be without my phone for a week.

 Then I wasn’t so happy.

  Our moods can go up and down faster than a cell phone with a bad charger.  Whatever happens, we can always find the dark side, never satisfied, always looking with longing to the other side even after we have crossed over to the other side. You can’t make us happy:

"To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.'”

Luke 7:31-35

  Which is sad in itself since contentment is a Christian virtue.  Yet the faithful seem to struggle with it as much as the unbeliever. We’re never quite satisfied with what we have, always longing, always wondering, (maybe wandering) looking for something better. And yet with that, we are never happy either.

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

1^st Timothy 6:6

 Contentment isn’t found in how many zero’s we have at the end of our bank account or what kind of car we drive or what acclaims we receive. It’s not getting what we want but wanting what we get. It is seeing how good we have it; not the difficulties that crop up along the way.

Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11-13

  As a Christian, I should be content no matter what since I have Christ. Anything extra is dessert. The little troubles in no way compare to the eternal rewards (2^nd Corinthians 4:17).

  If I can’t be happy in Christ, then nothing can make me happy!