Devotions with Holly Woodbridge

Convenience or Contentment: A Pondering by Holly Woodbridge

Matthew 16:24-26 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

I love schedules. I love order. I love calm. But, you would never know it if you walked in my shoes for a day. I have found a T-Shirt that would suit me well: “Coordinator of chaos.”
Interrupted schedules, noise, chaos; these are my life and they are inconvenient. A knock at the door, a surprise phone call, a ride needed; these are inconvenient. A spill, an unexpected errand to run, bills; these are inconvenient too. A headache, bad weather, cancelled plans, a body that won’t cooperate; all inconvenient.

Then there are shipwrecks, jail time, beatings, persecution, hardship, death; these are a different level of inconvenience. In fact, my inconveniences do not hold a candle to these. And yet, we read Paul’s answer to these in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Do I want convenience or contentment? Do I want to live for my sake or for Christ’s sake?
A life of convenience does not grow us. It stagnates us. So, I will choose inconvenience, knowing as I do, God is at work in me, and in time I will find that I too can be “content in all things.”
Philippians 4:11-13 NIV “11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 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 hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
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What about you? Will you choose convenience for today or contentment in all things?