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The C word

I had dinner with a favorite friend of mine this week. And among other things (men, traveling, work, money, babies, independence, chocolate, ice cream, chocolate ice cream, jobs) we started talking about contentment. That crazy "C" word that seems so easy to preach, and yet so hard to practice. So it is with, 


most everything.  


But what is it about contentment that is so especially difficult to realize in our lives? Despite how much I have, nearly everyday I have thoughts of discontentment:


"Why is it so hard to find a job?"


"Why can I not afford any of the "Groupon Getaways" that come to my inbox each day?"


"Am I good at anything besides school?"


"Am I even good at school?"


"Why do only 39 people follow my blog?"


"Why do I live in Durham, NC?"


This is just the surface...


Does this resonate with you at all? I bet everyone I know could think of something, or many things, that cause them discontentment. And usually discontentment stems from envy and envy stems from comparison. And comparison, we concluded, comes from not trusting that God will/has provided for you in the perfect way, out of His perfect knowledge and of course


His perfect love.


Not trusting God's provision in your life...
Wanting something beyond what He has already given you...


This story that my friend and I were piecing together over Jason's Deli, sounded eerily like that story from the garden. Where God provided everything, and yet, the one thing that couldn't be had,


was where Adam and Eve found discontentment. And they became envious. And they compared themselves to God. And they wanted more.


When we see it this way, is it very hard at all to believe that we were perfectly represented by Adam? Almost everyday I discover some sin in me, and two seconds later I realize, 


yep that was the same sin from the garden. The very same sin. 


Discontentment,
Desiring control,
De-throning God,
Disobeying.


(Those did not intentionally all start with Ds.)


This was Adam's sin. And this, is our sin. It's the very same sin. Adam really was us. And we are Adam.


But then, is it also so very hard to believe that Jesus was the perfect replacement for our punishment? And that everyday, when I discover those garden-sins that I commit, two seconds later I realize,


yep, this is why Jesus had to die. The very reason.


And I'm humbled with gratefulness in that moment. 





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