This piece was written for the May issue of the Lee Creek Baptist Church newsletter, Grace & Peace.
A few years ago, I heard the story of a woman who went into the hospital, only for no one from her church to come visit her. No one checked in. No one sent a card.
Instead of letting the seed of her disappointment spring into a root of bitterness, this dear lady saw an open door for a much-needed ministry. After she recovered, and whenever someone from her congregation would spend time in the hospital, she would send a card and even visit them. Card-sending would be her vocation, so that no one had to lie in a hospital bed emptyhanded as she had.
When The Card Lady found herself back in the hospital sometime later, the response was different. This time, she received notes and cards from the church members she had blessed. She hadn’t lectured them into becoming more thoughtful; she’d blessed them by her thoughtfulness, and they now heaped the blessings back on her head.
I think about this story sometimes, and it stings a little when I think about what my own reaction might have been. There is something beautiful about this woman’s complete lack of entitlement. A well-fitting key to unlocking Christian joy is something The Card Lady seemed to possess:
Contentment.
Where does biblical joy come from? Is it the absence of hard things? Is it getting what we want? Or is it being satisfied in Christ, whether anyone sends a card or not? Whether we are healed, or not? Whether our spouse does the dishes for us, or we have to do them at the end of a long day?
Entitlement fixes our eyes on what we don’t have, “should” have, or desperately desire. Contentment lifts our gaze to the throne of Christ, where we see with great joy that we have already been given “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3). In His presence is “fullness of joy,” and we are standing in His presence in our very kitchens, homes, and hospital rooms (Ps. 16:11).
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”
~ Phil. 4:4
I think of the Apostle Paul, who said he had learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether in abundance or need: it was through Christ, who strengthened him (Phil. 4:11-13). So we can “rejoice in the Lord always,” even when the diagnosis is hard, when the waiting is long, when no one sends a card.
Not only can we rejoice, but like that dear woman in the hospital, we can send a card in return.
“Surely you have all things, because you have Him for your portion, and in that you have all, and this is the mystery of contentment. It makes up all its wants in God.”
~ Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
bethanyjlincks.com 