Thankful for Fleas
By: Meghan Newkirk
I had to repent to one of my children for sinning against them this week. I sent a sarcastic text to a friend complaining about a behavior of said child that I found annoying and it was accidentally discovered on my computer. I felt exposed immediately and then angry that my sinful actions were brought into the light. Finally regret percolated, overflowing as I realized the source of my initial irritation that lead to my public complaining, discontentment.
Contentment is something we are on the hunt for all the time, quarantined or not. We all desire the rest that comes with feeling joy and peace in the circumstances we are in. Usually my contentment comes best served with a side of ease and fun. In the same way idols can creep into our hearts, discontentment can quickly take root also.
When I feel discontented, as I often have during this quarantine, I bellow my complaints to my family. I start a dialogue with myself and others that is dissatisfied and disgruntled. My reliance on Christ wanes because I feel life is unfair in ways I do not deserve. The desire for peace in my home, ample groceries, and quiet time to myself all become more like saviors in my heart rather than Jesus himself.
It’s amazing how quickly gratitude gets replaced with grumbling when our hearts aren’t focused on the giver of all good gifts, God himself. He sent the ultimate gift who saves us and sets us free from the overwhelming temptation to be discontented. When our eyes focus too long on desired things, people, behaviors, and circumstances, the redeemer gets blurry in the background leaving us empty and ungrateful.
In the well-known book The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom is held in a concentration camp with her sister Betsie, the two worked diligently to give the Gospel to any prisoners who would listen. The conditions they lived in were horrendous at best, but Betsie worshipped and thanked God for fleas that infested their barracks because it kept the guards away, allowing them to share the Gospel more boldly within the camp. God used something awful, like fleas for their good and his glory.
As we live in isolation and long for meaningful interactions, let us not allow those challenges to tempt us to become discontented. May we all pray that God would grant us contentment in himself through what his son did for us on the cross. Keeping our eyes on the ways God always keeps his promises will remind us of his goodness in the times that aren’t as comfortable as we would like them to be. Our sinful nature will certainly blur the path to contentment, but with God’s help and overwhelming love for us we too can be thankful for fleas.