The Path to Contentment

 By Tim Challies - Posted at @challies:

I wonder if you have ever considered that the solution to discontentment almost always seems to be more. If I only had more money I would be content. If I only had more followers, more possessions, more beauty, then at last I would consider myself successful. If only my house was bigger, my influence wider, my sales higher. Then, at last, I would achieve the contentment that has been so elusive.

The trouble, of course, is that “more” is a changing and escalating standard rather than a stable one. No matter what you have, there is still more to be had. Even if you earn more there is still more to earn and even if you achieve more there is still more to achieve. The pursuit of more is an endless pursuit. More is a thankless master.

Part of the reason for this is that we don’t usually simply want more. Rather, we want more than—more than another person. No one in the world is content to be the second richest man, the second most beautiful woman, or the second fastest runner. And, for the record, no one is perfectly content to be the richest, most beautiful, or fastest either. Why? Because they know their time will soon be up, and if there’s anything worse than being the second richest in the world it’s being the former richest in the world and if there’s anything worse than being the second most beautiful person in the world it’s being the former most beautiful person—the one whose beauty has long since diminished or whose standard of beauty has long since been supplanted. (Imagine that for the majority of your life it’s said of you, “She used to be so beautiful.”)

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