How much would it take for us to have enough money? Remarkably, studies show that most people, regardless of income, answer the question the same way: We need about 10% more to feel comfortable. Ten percent will make a difference, and whether we earn $30,000 per year or $60,000 or $250,000 or a cool million, just 10% more is what we want.
When people are asked the same question over time, Loyola Marymount University Professor Christopher Kaczor reports "when they do get that 10%, which typically happens over the course of a few years, they want just another 10%, and so on, ad infinitum." This reality prompted British psychoanalyst Joan Riviere to make the following observation: "by its very nature [greed] is endless and never assuaged; and by being a form of the impulse to live, it ceases only with death."
The apostle Paul said: “I have learned to be satisfied with what I have. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me" (Philippians 4:11-13).
How could Paul be “satisfied” in prison? How could he be “content” with his situation? He explained it himself: “I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.” Christ gave Paul—and gives us—the power to be free of the worries that tie most people in knots: “Can I pass this test?” “Should I take that job?” “Will my granddaughter get her life together?” “I wish I had a new dress/car/boat/phone/house/appearance.” Our trust in Jesus draws us in line with God’s plan, God’s will. In seeking to serve God’s will, whether we are “in need” or whether we “have more than enough” is not the determining factor for being faithful. Being “full or hungry,” or having “too much or too little” is not the determining factor. No, Jesus gives us a power of spirit that gives us strength to face any condition, any circumstance. That’s why the imprisoned Paul was able to say to his financially poor but spiritually rich friends in Philippi, “I have learned to be satisfied with what I have." Paul knew that having Christ in his life was enough.
In 2005, Kurt Vonnegut, famous author of dozens of classic books, wrote a poem inspired by a conversation he had years before with his good friend and fellow-author, Joseph Heller, the writer of the classic Catch-22. The two were at an extravagant party in the Hamptons, thrown by a Long Island, New York billionaire hedge fund manager. Vonnegut asked Heller, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host in just one day probably made more money than your novel Catch-22 earned in its entire history? Heller replied, “I’ve got something he can never have.” To which Vonnegut replies, “What on earth could that be?” And Heller said, “I have enough.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have enough. Enough! Like the apostle Paul, we, too, can realize that because we have the gift of Jesus in our lives, we have enough.
· Knowing that God loves us without preconditions;
· Knowing that God forgives us when we sincerely regret the wrongs and hurts and failings we’ve caused and vow to repent and do better.
We have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives us. Regardless of whether we are in need or have more than we need, it’s because we welcome Jesus to live and work within us that we are able to face all things and be satisfied with what we have.
