Whatever

Just like Hollywood can make us develop unhealthy views (in my opinion) on relationships, it can also create unrealistic expectations of success. Sarah Jessica Parker’s character in “I Don’t Know How She Does It” gets the high profile job, a home run mutual fund pitch, a doting husband, two lovely children and a hot body/wardrobe to boot. No, there won’t always be milestone after milestone…or a continual run of breakthroughs, or soaring success Monday-through-Friday. That is just not realistic.

Real life is flat.  Not in a bad way though. Life is more of a plateau most of the time. It is marked by highlights, but how we live in the dullness of everydayness is even more telling. I’m preaching to myself here. Being “content whatever the circumstances” doesn’t necessarily refer to extremes. It also refers to everyday.

That’s the external part of life. But sometimes (at least for me) I wonder where my string of successes are hiding in my walk with God. As a young, sprouting Christian it was far easier to see the work God was doing. My heart and mind were in need of repair and the changes were far more obvious. But now, I go days, weeks, months without noticing a major shift in my thinking to have more of the “mind of Christ”. This…is…frustrating.

In her devotional “Battlefield of the Mind”, Joyce Meyer writes about a friend who felt like a failure because she could no longer see the success in her Christian walk. Meyer says,

“(My friend) seemed to think that holy, victorious living came from one major victory after another. Yes, we do have times when we have great breakthroughs; however, most of our victories come slowly. They come little by little…because we move slowly in our spiritual growth, we are often unaware of how far we have moved.”

A pastor recently used this example when talking to me about our faith, development with God and just life in general. We hope and expect a slow steady growth. Sort of like a smooth, incline up a hill. But instead we get flat. Lots of flat. Marked by the occasional spike (growth, change, failure). Then we sit plateaued again, this time at a higher level for awhile. Then jolt! Another spike. It’s jarring on our spirit (and maybe self-esteem) but it teaches us (speaking to myself here again) to trust and rest in God in the seemingly flat, everyday, parts of life.

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…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hunger, whether living in plenty or in want.  Philippians 4:11b-12 (NIV)