Be Content In All Things, Including Where You Are At!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(6) But godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  (8) But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.’ (1 Timothy 6:6-8)

Being the beginning of May, I see in my daily routine of checking the temperatures where our children live, that while our son in Virginia is experiencing 70-degree weather (almost as warm and as humid as what we have here in southwest Florida), our daughter in New Hampshire is still experiencing temperatures in the mid-50s.  Fortunately, it appears she will no longer need to worry about snow, which she gets often between the months of November and April, though it is possible that a dusting of snow could still occur.  Our son occasionally gets snow in central Virginia but it is rare he gets it in terms of ‘feet’, but ‘inches’.

Of course, the question we ask here in Florida, especially on the Suncoast, is ‘what’s snow?’  The only time it snowed in the 37 years we’ve been in Florida was in 1989, where it snowed just enough for it to accumulate on a lawn chair in our former Sarasota home to make one snowball, and toss it onto the head of my then 2-year-old son.  (Yes, he’s now 39, and that’s a sobering reminder I’m now old.)

I am of course thankful that we live in such warm weather as one does not have to shovel the sunshine off our driveway in order to leave our home.  However, from July through October, in the midst of hurricane season and the height of summer here, sometimes we look at Virginia or New Hampshire and see their temperatures as being more inviting, being in the 70s and 80s while Florida bakes in the mid-90s.  They also are less likely to experience hurricanes up there unless it is from a remnant of a storm that hit us or our neighboring Gulf of America states with full force.  The temperatures and the threat of hurricanes can make us envious of their locations up north in the summertime, as they may be envious of Florida in the height of winter.

But does God want us to be envious of others for things such as these?  People sinfully covet the tangible assets others have; cars, homes, money and ‘stuff’.  But what about the intangibles such as weather, climate, location?  Usually, folks go to 1 Timothy 6 for verse 10a, ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.’  Prior to that, Paul is telling Timothy, in verses 6 through 8, to be content with what you have. 

One can be covetous over something as trivial as, well, the weather.  It is something I don’t bring up until asked by those I talk to who are ‘up north’ (including the kids) because:

1) I don’t want to be accused of rubbing someone’s nose into ‘we got the better weather’, and 2) it always comes up about the severe heat of the Florida summer being stifling (which in comparison is no different than the summer days of high heat and humidity in Pittsburgh, Washington DC, or Virginia Beach). 

There are several individuals I use to work with remotely from the DC area who asked me what the weather was like here in the middle of winter, and then when I told them got an octave or two higher in pitch in obvious chagrin.  (They asked…)

God does not want us to be envious over such trivial matters as it serves no purpose.  We live where we live in the US because (as of today) we have the choice to live where we’re at.  People may be where they are at due to employment or family needs, but we have the freedom to live where we want to. We can look up north in the spring or fall and be envious for the cooler temperatures and the scenic sights of the colorful trees, but we should be content that we have homes here, with friends and a strong church community to be with. 

We hear of people yearning to go where the ‘grass is greener’ but as author and humorist Erma Bombeck stated many years ago, ‘the grass is greener over the septic tank’.  Florida has its issues to deal with (hurricanes, iguanas, alligators, etc.) as much as the northern states have theirs (snow, ice, copperheads, high taxes, etc.)  So, enviousness is not just a money thing, it can be a location thing, a clothing thing, a car thing – anything one can be envious of. 

Be content; make sure you have what you need to eat, drink, and clothe yourself – take care of your needs and ensure you have a proper relationship with Jesus and you should not want.  If you try to keep up with the Joneses, you end up out of focus of what is really important, keeping up with your own true needs.  Contentment is knowing what you need, and allowing God to provide the means to answer your needs.  When you become content in your needs, you’ll find even the smallest ‘extras’ are blessings, and when others get their blessings, you are not envious for their gifts but blessed that they have been blessed.

I am content in the warm sun of the Florida environment, blessed that I don’t have to shovel snow, and that the Lord gave us the opportunity to come here thirty-seven years ago.  If we do want to see the leaves change and cooler temperatures, we can go do that (though that breaks my personal preference not to leave Florida after 1 October) but I am just as content to stay here with the palm trees and the humid warmth of the day.