True Contentment Comes From Wanting Too Much

I was skim­ming through the old Puri­tan book The Rare Jew­el of Chris­t­ian Con­tent­ment by Jere­mi­ah Bur­roughs when a pas­sage caught my atten­tion:

God­li­ness teach­es us this mys­tery, Not to be sat­is­fied with all the world for our por­tion, and yet to be con­tent with the mean­est con­di­tion in which we are. When Luther was sent great gifts by Dukes and Princes, he refused them, and he says, ‘I did vehe­ment­ly protest that God should not put me off so; ’tis not that which will con­tent me.’ A lit­tle in the world will con­tent a Chris­t­ian for his pas­sage. Mark, here lies the mys­tery of it, A lit­tle in the world will con­tent a Chris­t­ian for his pas­sage, but all the world, and ten thou­sand times more, will not con­tent a Chris­t­ian for his por­tion. A car­nal heart will be con­tent with these things of the world for his por­tion; and that is the dif­fer­ence between a car­nal heart and a gra­cious heart. But a gra­cious heart says, ‘Lord, do with me what you will for my pas­sage through this world; I will be con­tent with that, but I can­not be con­tent with all the world for my por­tion.’ So there is the mys­tery of true con­tent­ment. A con­tent­ed man, though he is most con­tent­ed with the least things in the world, yet he is the most dis­sat­is­fied man that lives in the world.

Empha­sis mine. Wow.

A lit­tle before this, Bur­roughs said:

A man who has learned the art of con­tent­ment is the most con­tent­ed with any low con­di­tion that he has in the world, and yet he can­not be sat­is­fied with the enjoy­ment of all the world. He is con­tent­ed if he has but a crust, but bread and water, that is, if God dis­pos­es of him, for the things of the world, to have but bread and water for his present con­di­tion, he can be sat­is­fied with God’s dis­pos­al in that; yet if God should give unto him King­doms and Empires, all the world to rule, if he should give it him for his por­tion, he would not be sat­is­fied with that. Here is the mys­tery of it: though his heart is so enlarged that the enjoy­ment of all the world and ten thou­sand worlds can­not sat­is­fy him for his por­tion; yet he has a heart qui­et­ed under God’s dis­pos­al, if he gives him but bread and water.

You can see more here.