It’s enough to make you cranky!
Today’s paper (20th December 2023) tells of how two Australian cricketers will earn $13,184 for each ball that they bowl in an upcoming series. Think about that! The same paper also tells of how someone on a modest annual salary of about $45,000 two years ago is now a few thousand dollars worse off in real terms. Meanwhile, it is revealed that the number of public servants in my home state (NSW) on large salary packages has skyrocketed.
How do we respond to such news? It’s easy to give way to discontent, envy, and even stoic despair. “It’s not fair” we mutter to ourselves. If you believe that the world is in the hands of random or malevolent forces, or a machine-like impersonal fate, these dark responses are magnified. Even the Christian may be tempted to join ancient Israel and grumble against God (eg, Exod 16:1-3).
The Christian teaching of providence helps us replace these responses with contentment and thankfulness.
The teaching of providence is embodied in the words that God ‘. works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will …’ (Eph 1:11). Our all-good and all-powerful maker, rescuer, and Lord moulds all events into his great purpose of bringing everything in heaven and earth together through Jesus (Eph 1:10). There are no exceptions. No event is random, controlled by a malevolent fate, or dependent on our frantic efforts.
Providence enables contentment. We can be content, even when we are worse off than others. The Apostle Paul gives an example. In our terms, he had known the Chairman’s Lounge and the pointy end of a plane, as well as being bumped to the middle seat in the back row of a budget airline. But he had also learned to be content with either and both (Phil 4:11-12). Christians can be content because they know that their circumstances are in the hands of God who works all things for the good of his people (Rom 8:28).
Providence enables thankfulness. We can be thankful in every situation (1 Thess 5:18) because we know that it is from God. Even as we cry to the Lord for relief from some need, we can be thankful (Phil 4:6). Left to ourselves, our prayers easily become a shopping list of discontentment. However, if every point of asking is paired with a point of thanks, discontentment is replaced by peace (Phil 4:7).
Providence enables peace. Here is a challenge to find peace for the new year. Open a file (or take a piece of paper) and make two columns. In one, list your problems and grumbles. In the other, “count your blessings, name them one by one”. For Christian people, the second list will soon explode in size as we see the providence of God providing for our needs and more.
Many Australians feel they are doing it tough as we slip into 2024. (Try telling that to a Palestinian Christian!) Rather than redouble efforts to make the world in our own image or surrender to stoic despair, we can look to the providence of God and enter the new year with contentment, thankfulness, and peace.
Maybe 2024 won’t be so bad after all. Now, if only I can bowl that cricket ball.
David Burke,
December 2023