You are going for a job interview. You have rehearsed responses to all the likely questions, seeking to impress with your drive, passion for results, and leadership qualities. You sense the interview is going favorably with only one more question remaining. Here it comes, and you are confident that you will hit it our of the ballpark. The question is, “What do you really want?”
You respond with “I want to be content.”
Whoops! The buzzer goes off, signaling the wrong answer. The expression on the interviewer’s face drops to a frown, and you feel as though you will be dropped into the dungeon of failed applicants as you hear the click of the trap door below your chair.
Failed interview or the wisest response?
The contemporary sense of being content implies lack of drive, a settling for less—hardly what organizations are looking for in a job applicant. Yet...what does contentment really mean and, though a word that might not be appropriate in an interview, might it be a worthy desire for a life well lived, an abundant life?
Let’s approach this in three ways.
Our starting point is Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
NIV
Other translations expand on the love of money to include material things and covetousness (an inordinate desire often for another’s possessions).
Next, what might the apostle Paul be thinking when he wrote the Letter To The Hebrews? Likely, he meant that
Contentment does not mean that you are indifferent to your circumstances. It means that you are not controlled by your circumstances. Paul is not saying, “I don't care whether I have an abundance or am in need.” He is saying, “My joy does not depend on it.”
(Source: Openthebible.org)
Another way to express this is that true contentment is a deep-seated sense of accepting who and where you are at any given moment. (Source: happify.com)
And finally, where or how is contentment to be found?
Paul’s secret to contentment is this: striving to do what God has called him to do in whatever circumstances he finds himself in. (Philippians 4:11-13) Hardly a statement of being satisfied with the status quo, it is an invigorating vision of working diligently and ceaselessly to glorify God with the gifts he has been blessed with.
And there is one more facet to Pauls’ contentment—trust. A trust in God to provide in all circumstances.
So, did you ace the interview? Depends on the interviewer.