What Happens Today

Content Contentment is a lifestyle. A lifestyle, I would say, that is not pervasive in our current western culture. After all, one very familiar dictate which has been handed down to us is, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our inalienable rights. I like to be happy. But I’d much rather be content. Contentment is a gift from God. Those who spend their lives pursuing their own happiness will never arrive at the peaceful place called content. What you strive to attain, you strive to keep. What you strive to attain is never enough. Really. The life ruled by the mentality that happiness comes from something you don’t have is insidious, filled with emptiness, and rewarded with grasps at fleeting satisfaction. And this lifestyle is dangerous, for it creates in us an increasing hunger. And for those of us who are weak-willed, that means danger. In the written account (called the book of Acts) of the early Christian church we see the recounting of a man who I

Patterns You get what you pay for. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Nothing in life is free. There are only two things certain in this life, death and taxes. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Can't complain. No one would listen anyway. How many of these memorable quotes have you heard? How many have come out of your mouth? How many have you actually believed? Paul, an apostle of the Christian faith wrote these words of caution in a letter to the church that existed in first century Rome, "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world ..." He was speaking to a world view, a way of thinking; an adopted outlook on life. The quotes above make sense; they seem to have some truth to them, an element of sensibility. And they may carry some truth, but they certainly carry much more. Hidden behind their surface meaning exists a philosophy, an attitude, a pattern of thought. Under the covers you'll find words that, in contrast to provi