Being content with life

I’ve been away from home for a few days while attending a meeting, which is also the reason I did not blog for two days, seeing that I had no internet connection. Part of this meeting was spent on discussing the letter I previously mentioned here. The person who had written the letter was also asked to attend the meeting so that it could be discussed with him. The good news is that he decided to withdraw the letter. However, the fact that it had been written could not be ignored and therefore a lot of time was spent in trying to understand his own personal feelings which had motivated him to put these things which he had said, on paper.
As I listened to the discussions taking place, I realised at some point that probably one of the main problems with this person was his own feeling of discontentment, not only with his own life but also with that which he received. And shortly afterwards I also realised that the issue was not the salary which he is getting (or rather, that he feels he is not getting). I have a strong feeling that, even if his salary should by doubled or tripled, that he would still feel that he is somehow being robbed of money that someone was owing him. He will never, as far as I can see, really be happy, because he seems to believe that the world is owing him something, and this feeling will not go away merely by increasing his salary.
Someone made the remark afterwards that it was strange to him that someone who was getting a relatively large salary (in terms of what people are earning in Swaziland, somewhere in the top 15% of the world) should be complaining about his salary while others, referring specifically to the group of people involved in our home-based caring project and who are getting no financial compensation for the work they are doing, seem to be doing this work joyfully. And suddenly the light seemed to break through in his own mind when he said that the difference was that these people had found purpose in their life. Being content with life isn’t first of all related to compensation received, but knowing that, through your life, you are having a positive influence on other people’s lives.
Obviously this could never become an excuse to underpay someone, but I couldn’t help thinking of the words in 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.”
And I wondered: Is it possible to trust God if you’re continually discontent with life?