I recently heard a statistic that shouldn’t have surprised me like it did. In the last two years, the personal savings rate in America has nose-dived down to -1%. Negative one percent.That means most of us are consistently spending more than we make.
Want to know the last time that happened? 1933. Anyone remember what was going on then? That’s right: the Great Depression. Look around you now. Does it seem like we’re in the middle of a depression? Not if we’re buying diet pills for our dogs.
Obviously, what’s driving the current trend is that most of us just don’t know how to be content. And that’s been on my mind for the past few weeks. I was quickly drawn to Paul’s words in Philippians 4: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”
It’s interesting the way Paul puts it – he says he’s learned the secret. Literally in the Greek, he’s saying “I’ve been initiated into the secret” of contentment. If it sounds to you like he’s been initiated into some kind of secret society, that’s probably exactly what he wants it to sound like. There were all kinds of secret societies back then, similar to the fraternities and sororities that define college life for many kids today.
I was in a college fraternity for a total of one quarter. I pledged when I was a freshman at UCLA, and spent the whole quarter being initiated into the fraternity. We had to learn the Greek alphabet backwards and forwards. We had to memorize the history of the fraternity and its crucial role in Civil War. We had to master secret songs and rituals.
Then there was all the work we had to do – cleaning up, doing our pledge sergeant’s laundry, even doing odd jobs to raise money for the fraternity. They made us go to South Central to work as security guards for some kind of community block party. This was just 3 months after the LA riots. With absolutely no training, they had us searching gang-bangers as they came into the neighborhood. A bunch of pasty white kids patting down Snoop Doggy Dogg and his buddies. If we had felt a knife or a gun, I seriously doubt any of us would have even said a word.
Sure enough, after a few hours on the job, a gunfight erupted about 100 yards from us. I started running, and I never went back to my fraternity again.
Being initiated into a secret society is hard work! And that’s exactly Paul’s point. If you want to learn contentment, you’re not going to be initiated overnight. You’re going to have to be a pledge for a while and get kicked around while God teaches you and tests you. It’s a trial by fire, just like joining a fraternity. But if you can make it through your initiation, Paul says you’ll be content whether you’re eating at Roy’s every night or licking the inside of a chili can.
Tomorrow we’ll explore more of Paul’s insights into contentment.