One thing that’s been on my mind a lot recently is that I’m turning 25 this year. Now I know in the big scheme of things and compared to many of the people that I spend a good deal of time with, that isn’t very old, but I sure do feel it. “I feel thin, stretched, sort of like butter scraped over too much bread,” in the wise words of Bilbo Baggins. This has led to the beginnings of a quarter-life crisis for me: what am I doing with my life and why? One of my reactions to that is to begin my seminary training, but the other thing I’m learning to do is to always be content. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I know so many people who complain about living in Cheyenne, Wyoming which isn’t the thriving metropolis of a Denver or Minneapolis. Yet as Mark Driscoll says, the boring seems to follow them wherever they live.

I found an article titled ‘40 and Content,’ that gets this exact point. The main thrust of the article is: “Question: Instead of obsessing about changing the world, what if we just gave ourselves to living in glad obedience to Jesus in the trenches of an ordinary life?” That is a great question! In Paul David Tripp’s book ‘What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage‘ he says that life isn’t made up of a number of big choices, but of thousands of daily little choices. Being healthy isn’t one big decision to work out once and be done, but a daily decision to work out and eat healthier. Can you be content with an “ordinary” life lived in complete surrender to God?