Contentment vs. Complacency

Back in January, our pastor gave his usual pastoral message at our annual congregational meeting, and something he said in that message really resonated and has “stuck” with me ever since. It is a thought that can sometimes be encouraging and can sometimes be overwhelmingly convicting: the idea of contentment versus complacency. Pastor talked about how, as Christians, we are commanded to be content, but that command should never be used as a license for complacency.

This idea could, of course, be applied in a plethora of ways. A man should not envy his neighbor’s possessions, but instead be content with what God has given him; however, that doesn’t mean that he should become complacent about his job and not care whether or not he is working hard to make his situation better for himself and his family. A student should not be jealous of a fellow classmate’s higher grade, but that doesn’t mean he should become complacent and not care whether he is doing good work or not because, after all, that other student is going to score higher than him anyway. A music student should not give up in despair if she doesn’t have the talent of a concert pianist, but nor should she become complacent and fail to exercise the gifts that God has given to her, for His glory.

Being content has to do with being satisfied and rejoicing in what one does have, while refusing to dwell on what one doesn’t have; being complacent, on the other hand, has to do with thinking that one is “good as is” and not having the willingness to work hard in order to grow and mature.

This issue goes hand in hand with another concept that I hold very near and dear: namely, that our lives are to be an experience of constant learning in nearly every aspect, whether it is formal education or not. Many people—especially, I will freely admit, young people of my own generation—seem to think that education happens during the K-12 and college years, but that once a person graduates with a diploma, whatever that diploma might be, he or she is done learning. Such young people cannot wait to “get through school,” and there seems to be some sort of misconception among my generation that “real life” cannot possibly begin until after graduation. The reality, however, is that a person’s whole life should consist of learning, to one degree or another. When formal education is over, a student should not think, “Oh good, that’s over—now I can get on with my life and forget about school.” While this is true to a certain extent, I believe that we should never abandon learning; we should continue to seek knowledge through various means, learning and growing and educating ourselves in every way we can throughout the balance of our lives. Contentment with one’s formal education (which is a good thing, by the way) should not be used as an excuse for complacency with regard to learning for the rest of our lives.

Of course, there are even more profound spiritual applications to this as well. Yes, we are to be content and rejoice wherever God has placed us, but that does not give us a license to become complacent and start acting as if we have nothing left to learn. I believe that this is a particularly great danger in the Reformed community, almost to a greater extent than anywhere else. We often tend to think that we “know our stuff” so well, and that we don’t really need to try to learn anything more. We assure ourselves of how we know so much more than the vast majority of the rest of the Christian community, so why should we bother to keep learning more when we already have a level of spiritual maturity that’s so much higher than the average American Christian?

What an incredibly dangerous idea this is! How easy it would be to move from this position to arrogance, haughtiness, and selfish favoritism! Instead of such hypocritical complacency, we need to practice humility, always recognizing how much we still have to learn and not becoming apathetic through the argument that we “know enough.” Our Christian lives should be a journey of constant learning and maturing, and we should never use a false “contentment” as a shield behind which to hide and avoid spiritual growth. As Christians, we are called to be sanctified, to become more like Christ each day, and that means constantly growing and never becoming complacent. We should have a hunger for the Word and for spiritual things that is never satisfied; we should never be “content” with where we are, but always push ourselves and seek to grow and learn more throughout the entirety of our spiritual lives.

Contentment, when it is godly and in the proper context, is a blessing and a gift from God. But we must never let that contentment become an excuse for laziness and a reason to grow stagnant in our growth, whether it is spiritual or otherwise.