Reading the Classics with Challies - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

I have been through and am going through a fairly troublesome time. In the big scheme of things it really isn't too big of a deal. But a career change at the age of 36 still presents some difficulties. These trying times have revealed something that I'm fairly confident I would have confessed beforehand: I'm not nearly as content as I should be.

The book that has been chosen for 'Reading the Classics with Challies' has already had an impact on me. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs is clearly going to challenge me and hopefully help develop my character in an area that needs the work.

Burroughs definition of Christian contentment as presented in the book is as follows: "Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition." Now, I can assure you that my frame of spirit over the ensuing changes in my life has been anything but sweet, quiet, or gracious. And though I may have been submitting to God's disposal, it has been grudgingly as opposed to with delight.

This may not have been apparent to everyone. I display some traits that may cause others to believe I am content but to which, in Burroughs opinion, Christian contenment is opposed to. "But now the gracious frame of spirit is in opposition to three things: 1. In opposition to the natural quietness of many men and women. 2. In opposition to a sturdy resolution. Some men through the strength of a sturdy resolution do not seem to be troubled, come what may. 3. By way of distinction from the strength of natural (though unsanctified) reason, which may quiet the heart in some degree."

I am naturally a quiet person; at least in regards to my inner dealings. I am fairly resolute in a natural way and I often use reason to quiet my heart to some degree. But this is not the 'jewel' that Burroughs extols for the Christian.

I don't want to just 'get through' this experience. I want to learn and grow and be sanctified by this divinely ordained process. I want to be able to say "not only do I see that I should be content in this affliction, but I see that there is good in it." I want my inner man to reflect the attitude in this quote: "It is, indeed, the top and the height of this art of contentment to come to this pitch and to be able to say, 'Well, my condition and afflictions are so and so, and very grievous and sore; yet, through God's mercy, I am in a good condition, and the hand of God is good upon me notwithstanding.'"

I am in complete agreement with Burroughs when he states "I suppose that merely in opening this subject you begin to see that it is a lesson that you need to learn, and that if contentment is like this then it is not easily obtained." Nevertheless, I purpose to obtain Christian contentment by the grace of God.