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| Not Millie's Cottage Courtesy: Google free |
Not only is her home tiny, she’s tiny, too. Obviously frail, she weighs in at well under one hundred pounds. The actual number doesn’t even match her age – ninety-eight! Suggestions that she should move into town don’t receive much of a hearing from her. And her friends’ statements of concern that, “it’s so lonely and remote out here,” don’t gain any traction at all.
Millie reminds me that physical frailty doesn’t necessarily equate to
either weakness of character or of spirit. This tiny titan has character and
spirit in abundance. Her stalwart independence was developed throughout her
life’s journey, meeting challenges and disappointments, bereavements and losses
along the way.
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| Not Millie: IStock Photo |
However, her independence represents only one side:
~ She lives alone, but
is not lonely.
~ She is frail and weak, yet she is strong.
~ Her means are modest,
yet she abounds in the richness of contentment.
Here’s the other side: Many
decades ago Millie committed her life to the Lord Jesus. He is to her a close
and constant companion.
Importantly, she didn’t get stuck on the periphery of the Christian life,
but journeyed along that pathway, exercising dependence on God’s grace, growing
in faith and in her relationship with the Lord. Reading the biblical scriptures
and meditating on their implications and significance for her life, while
keeping daily prayer appointments with God and serving others in His name –
these have given her sustaining power.
This indomitable soul has faced her todays
with gratitude and grace, despite whatever her yesterdays might have brought. And now Millie continues facing her tomorrows in readiness of spirit. She’s
homeward bound to be with Jesus, her Lord and Saviour, while continuing
house-bound in her tiny cottage in the woods, journeying on into this—another
New Year, with hope and peace, joy and love. . . . And contentment.
Contentment – what a great quality!
Hopes, dreams, aspirations and ambitions, and even discontentment
might be OK, if well-placed and well-focused; they can occupy an appropriate,
beneficial place in our lives.
Of course, unless these desires and motivations are honourable and
others-oriented and we go about fulfilling them by honourable means, such urges
may consume us with a soul-destroying selfish obsession. Unchecked, they can
leave a trail of ruined lives, broken relationships and families, violence and
crime and murder, and even become amplified as feuding communities and
countries at war.
But this isn’t so with folks like Millie and friends of hers I’ve come
to know. Regardless of whether people are financially poor or wealthy, they can
be either intensely selfish and discontented, or selfless and truly contented.
Let US journey on into the New Year, balancing contentment and ambition
the “Millie way.” It was Apostle Paul’s way, too – content and ambitious
at the same time. He says:
“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing
into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and
clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Timothy 1:6-8 NIV).
And, “. . . one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward
the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ
Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14 NIV).
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Peter A. Black lives in Southwestern Ontario. He writes a weekly
inspirational newspaper column, P-Pep! and is author of Raise
Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart, and Parables from the
Pond.
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