WhatEver.  Philippians 4.11

If you have a teenager, or if you have been around very many of them recently, you are familiar with the ‘whatEver’ used as a sarcastic retort to something you said that they didn’t like.  But yesterday the word “whatever” struck me quite differently, twice.

Early in the morning, I was studying Paul’s words, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”  Did you see it—the ‘whatever’?  I began to wax long about the ‘whatever’ in our various circumstances; looking at the passage, Paul seems to be indicating outward circumstances.  No matter if he was hungry or full, he was able to be content. 

I prayed with my pen in response, “He was a man, Lord—did he not FEEL all the angst a woman feels—that I feel—the very throes of life?  And Lord, did Paul have a mind that gets so divided, so pulled this way and that like mine often does, until I am exhausted by my own thoughts—such that it would be difficult to say at that time that I am content?”  See, I am only recently coming to terms with the realization that my mind really does never rest … and well, maybe that is not so normal. (whatever normal is) 

But as I prayed and thought, I believe Paul was very much talking about the inward part of the ‘WHATEVER’.  Yes, Paul had learned, ‘whatever the circumstances –even when enduring inward or outward pain- to be content.’  And of course, he had an over-active, always moving mind!  He did not just live his life full-tilt for the cause of Christ, no matter what it cost him—he wrote about his life and circumstances, he fully developed Christian doctrine, established churches, taught them, and encouraged them to flourish. 

Allow me to cut to this last Sunday Night Live leaders’ meeting… I had asked Dave to lead a discussion with the students, prompting them to think about their spiritual goals for 2012.  ‘Well,’ he said, as he began—kinda’ looked down, smiled, and shook his close-cropped head.  (Dave is a burly, football guy with a big old heart.  I met him at the gym one day—sitting abreast of him and another big, gnarly young guy—three of us in a row, on stationary bikes, studying our Bibles.  I turned and said, ‘All right, what’s going on here?’ noting their reading material, as unusual as mine, for the gym.  I soon learned that Big Dave had recently started a Fellowship of Christian Athletes Bible study at our nearby community college, and really loved God.  Forty-five minutes later, the three of us were buddies, standing in the middle of the large facility, saying a prayer.  I invited them to S.N.L., the high school group I lead, and well, more on that later … back to Dave for now--)

‘Well, when we met Christine,’ Big Dave said, ‘One of the things she mentioned about us sharing with you guys, was that it was best to keep it ‘real, raw, and relevant’.  And then, he told them that he felt God had led him to end a five-plus year dating relationship because he had let it come between him and God.  I thought Big Dave was going to cry, but he didn’t, though his pain was palpable.  He explained that for 2012, his goal is absolutely to keep God Number One; it made quite an impression.

And then, I thought about the ‘whatever’ again.  For my young friend, Dave, he wasn’t experiencing Paul’s outward turmoil of shipwreck or torture or imprisonment, but he was definitely experiencing heartache.  Could he then say, ‘whatever—yes, even now—I am content in my Lord’?  For that is his challenge at present.

WhatEver . . .  may we find our contentment in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace,

Christine