Surprisingly Satisfied

It’s already February and I haven’t even said Happy New Year to my fellow bloggies! As time passes, I am realizing just how quickly it does and how it inevitably gets away from me before I can even realize it’s gone. So, it’s always good to step back from assignments, due dates, and demands and just write. Just because.

I am excited about this New Year - a new calendar, new classes, new resolutions, new beginnings. Every year, I spend reflecting on the past year and making an unrealistic, ambitious list of resolutions. Last year, some of those were…

I will take a trip (big or small) once every month.

I will know what University I will transfer into.

I will have a confirmed major or minor.

I will go to a state fair.

I will minimize social networking and maximize relationships.

I will volunteer more.

I will tithe more.

I will give more.

I will pray more.                                                        .

I will make an impact on a life.

I will witness a healing.

I will give a speech fearlessly.

I will participate in The Living Passover and love it.

I will feel happy on Valentines Day.

I will do the Daniel Diet.

I will maintain a good GPA.

I will discover art in some way, shape, or form.

I will visit Houston.

I will not be as frugal with money and give courageously.

I will read and write.

I will laugh. hard.

I will discover worship artists.

I will get braces.

This year, I didn’t make any resolutions. That’s right – not a single one. Partly because I was at the Passion Conference during the first few days of the new year and too busy to hear myself think, but also because I wanted to enter 2013 without expectation. I want to be content with whatever this year will bring to pass. I wasn’t able to get off that easy though – the Bible study that I am currently studying is called The Resolution for Women. I guess I will make some resolutions after all.  But unlike the past years, this year I am focusing less on the things I do or the places I go and more on the person that I become.

I immediately connected with Priscilla Shirer in The Resolution for Women when she wrote,

“Instead of relishing each moment, each year, each opportunity, each step on the journey, I’m constantly overeager to get to the next thing, which always looks more enticing than what’s currently before me. I’m rarely satisfied in full with my present station” (Shirer, 13).

Wow – she was writing directly to me! The conviction hit me straight between my eyes when she said that this feeling had a name: discontentment. I am convinced that every woman struggles with discontentment, especially those who have every reason to be content! Satan targets those of us because he loves to steal away our joy so that we will be less effective for the Kingdom of God. But being content is not something that one is or anything that comes naturally. No, contentment is a discipline. In Philippians, Paul tells us,

I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content – whether well fed or hungry in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)

So there you have it. Despite yours and my present circumstances – we are able to be content because He gives us the strength to do so.  

Interestingly, the spiritual significance of the number 13 means promise and blessing. Even when we feel “left without,” insecure, or discontent, God’s promises are endless and they will come to pass. I have every reason to rejoice. That is why I say that I refuse to be discontent with whatever this year brings my way, and whatever this year doesn’t bring at all. I do not want to be waiting for “the next big thing.” I wish to be ever so content with each and every promise and blessing the Lord fulfills in my life this year. I resolve that throughout this year, I will be surprisingly satisfied. 

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