Friday, February 12, 2010

Contentment

Many years ago, I came across a story on contentment. Once, a man came across an old man sitting in his rocking chair doing nothing. So this young man asked the old man, “Why are you sitting here doing nothing?” The old man answered, “What else is there to do?” “You could work the field and reap a huge harvest.” The old man then said, “And what happens after I harvest my crops?” The young man said, “Well, you can sell them and make money and then you can relax” The old man looked at the young man and said “Well, that’s what I’m doing now”

For many of us, we spend more than half of our lives chasing after so many things. One of the challenges that we face in this modern society is that we are constantly bombarded with tons of advertisements, each telling us what we should buy and what we should wear. In other words, modern society is telling us how to run our lives.

Because of this, we are rarely content with what we have. We always look to others to see what they have and wanting whatever others have for ourselves. This is especially apparent for the younger generation. Peer pressure affects the younger people very much, especially those in their teens and young adults.

Teens these days find opportunity to brag about what they have, a new IPod, new phone, where they study, new branded clothes, the list is endless. For many people, having new stuff and gadgets makes us look cool in the eyes of others. And this is the problem with modern society today.

I always tell people that I have no TV, no air cond, no fridge and they’ll say “What??” Personally I don’t see a big deal in having all those stuff. I have, after all, been living without them for nearly half of my life. One thing about life is that we can learn to live without certain things if we put our mind to it. And after awhile the urge to have something will go away. How, then, to stay contented with what we have?

One of the things that I discovered is that we need to be satisfied with what we have in the first place. To really appreciate the things that we have and no think of the things that we want. I’ll always remember a story of Aristotle (I think, or is it Plato?) walking through a market and saying to his disciple, “I’m amazed ay the many things that I do not need” I wonder how many of us can really say that out loud. We need to really open our eyes and see the many good things that we have around us; our family and friends, our health, our well being, the little things that make our lives meaningful.

We need to ask ourselves whether we would be happier if we had that new IPhone model, or a new 16Gb IPod Touch or a new pair of Nike shoes. All these things are nice to have in the beginning but after some time, the novelty of having them will wear off. Then we look for other things. Our sense of gratification will never be satisfied as long as we look for happiness in material objects.

To me, some of these things are essential, perhaps necessary, but I don’t think they’re worth dying or craved for. What’s important to me are friends that I have, the love of family members, good health and enough to spend on. Of course, I would be lying if I said I didn’t wish to strike the lottery or have a million bucks, but eventually these thoughts will just fade away. It fades away because it leaves me feeling rather empty. So for those of us who feel that their life would be more complete if they had this or that, please think again.

Christ has said that we cannot serve two masters; we will end up liking one and hating the other. Do we want to make the things that we have our master, or do we want to make Christ our master? That is for us to think through because only we can make that choice.