Contentment

It can probably be argued that the wealthy King Solomon was a victim of his own success. His capacity to produce fed an almost bottomless craving for more. But at least he had the insight to recognize the power of greed. His collections of proverbs includes this gem:

"There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, 'Enough!':
the grave, the barren womb,
land which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, 'Enough!'
Proverbs 30:15-16

Think about these four places in Nature where demand is fierce and insistent with an insatiable craving for more:

(1) Death has a voracious appetite. Graveyards may get crowded, but death itself has an infinite capacity for more;
(2) The pain of infertility is beyond words. The natural drive to reproduce is deeply imbedded in living things and when that drive is blocked, frustration overflows;
(3) Fire will burn forever as long as it has fuel; and (4) the ground will drink in water forever – especially in the Middle East. There may be temporary periods of flooding or hyper-saturation, but eventually gravity and evaporation will make the soil thirsty again.

These four signs of craving in Nature serve as proverbs to sharpen our understanding of ourselves. Human beings have powerful longings, insatiable even, - for food, money, attention, power, fulfillment and love. We hunger for things we hope will satisfy, but often they are a mask for deeper needs. Restlessness and addictions come in many forms. God warns us in the Ten Commandments not to allow coveting to capture our hearts.

These four examples from nature, fire and death, thirsty land and maternal drive, are not perversions; they’re part of the world as God designed it. The proverbs remind us how urgent these forces can be, both in nature and human nature. Whether our craving is for needful things or expressions of greed, we need to learn to recognize and acknowledge the intensity of our longings so they do not master us.

These proverbs call us to contentment, to rise above our natural instincts and drives. Learning to say ‘Enough” is one of the tasks of growing into maturity. Weaning is one of the early disciplines infants have to master in order to move on to even more challenging exercises of restraint.

Unless we learn eventually to restrain ourselves we remain childish. This is what makes voluntary fasting a particularly profitable discipline. Fasting serves to harness our instinctive appetites and direct our attention to what satisfies most deeply. Happy are those who learn the secret of contentment.

Image Sources:
lawn sprinkler - CWG Landscape
cemetary - unknown
fire - ubiquitous on the internet
bread - Cana