I’ve been thinking for days about how this week started: Mark and I made what we thought was a quick trip to the cemetery and ended up staying three hours.
We didn’t see anyone we knew, and we don’t have family in this cemetery: we went to remember history and ended up affirming the values we want to define ours. Our conversation centered on purpose, stewardship, and contentedness. There’s no place quite like a cemetery to ponder the meaning of life.
In ways solemn, sacred, and not scary, sitting among the dead reminded us of our mortality — not that we truly forget, but its effect was a recalibration of our motives. If we were to die at any moment (possibility not paranoia here), we would want to be stopped dead in our tracks living for purpose, not chasing dreams that build kingdoms in sand. How many ambitions are represented by slab after weatherworn slab, all silenced except for the few who made history. And if that’s our goal — to make history — we’ve aimed too low. We know that fulfilling God’s purposes is a divine goal that may not come to fruition in this lifetime — and we asked our hearts if that was okay.
It was. It is.
I brought up to Mark how for weeks now, I’ve been hearing the word “content” in songs, sermons, verses, devotionals, and conversation. I believe it was for this moment. I expressed that throughout my life, I haven’t struggled much with contentment because I have strong hope — but I recognize that the dark side of hope could be to crush contentment in the present moment. Mark and I are enormously content right now, and probably the most joyous we have been in our lives, which is all the more reason to affirm a commitment to contentedness no matter what comes or doesn’t come our way.
So in the presence of the fallen, we recommitted ourselves to contentment. To steward whatever the Lord brings or takes away. Whether we walk together (literally) or things stay the same, we will be content. In an era where we’re all exhorted to change the world, we committed to daily obedience, even if we never see the results. We do not know yet what we shall be (1 John 3:2), but one day, we shall see Him as He is. And that’s our goal.