A very wealthy young man approached Jesus asking him what he needed to do to receive eternal life. This must have been a person who sought all the things that most people seek for contentment: wealth, health and status. Our thoughts often deceive us as to all the things we imagine will bring us contentment. Envy grips our hearts to want to be attractive, successful, wealthy and worshiped, only to disappoint us with more dissatisfaction with who we are and what we possess.

This wealthy young man was not content until he could be assured of eternal life. He had followed all the commands by being a good person but realized that something was missing. Jesus gives him the solution to deep contentment: “Go sell all you have and come follow me.” Jesus’ invitation was for him to lose his life in order to find real life. The young man loved his stuff and status too much to sacrifice it for a new life. He left Jesus with great discontent.

Jesus gives us the pathway to contentment: “those that have more will be given to them, and those who do not have, that which they have shall be taken away from them.” This eternal principle Jesus reframes in another instant when he says: “if you want to save your life, you must lose it, and if you lose your life for his sake, you will find it.” What is he trying to tell us about living with contentment? Contentment is not about receiving; it is all about giving.

I cannot give what I don’t recognize I have. If my worldview is always centered around my needs, then I, like many, will be most miserable. When life is built around my rights, what I deserve and what I need, it is difficult to see how I might give myself to others. Laying down my life so that others can live is as foreign to me as it is to the young man who had everything, but not eternal life. He just could not see beyond his own desires.

Witnessing the economic struggles of people in Haiti, Africa, China, Egypt and Pakistan humbles one to repent of complaints of want because you see need much greater than most can imagine. Witnessing the challenges of adequate health care as I sat in foreign hospitals caused me to repent of the complaints about our health care system. And sitting in gatherings around the world with students who have few resources (even books) for study makes me ever so aware of the privileges of education in this country. You see, I am learning contentment not through envying others, but through seeing and serving critical needs.

Yvette and I offer thanksgiving each day for the blessings of serving FPU and the Central Valley. The needs are not always as the rich young man pursued, but the deeper need as Jesus describes: “…lose your life in him, and there you will find real life.”