I went to watch the sun come up at the local lake this morning. It seemed to take forever!

I sat in the quiet truck. The only sound I could hear was the heater blowing. The warm air succeeded in tricking my mind into thinking it wasn’t actually close to freezing outside.

The edge of light at the horizon turned into licks of brilliant orange flame as it reflected of the scattered high clouds. Watching this slow crawl of life into another day gave me plenty of time to think.

As I sat there I thought of things that had been, could have been, and will never be. I allowed myself to get into quite the funk. I know nobody else ever starts looking around at things and thinking how easy it would be if… I was that person, I had a new (job, car, home, etc.). But I did. I saw a heron standing motionless in the water. That’s right, I started to think how much better it would be if I was a bird.

That bird. Standing there in the water. Not a care in the world. Why couldn’t I be that bird.

I turned off the truck. I rolled the window down so I could listen to the sounds of nature. What I heard was the brisk wind blowing across the lake as it removed the magic of the heater from the interior of the truck and my “poor me” brain.

Suddenly that bird didn’t have it so well. It was cold. The wind was blowing. He was wet. The lake level was down. Seemed like sort of a miserable existence.

Yet, still he stood there. Motionless. Waiting for some small fish to swim by at just the right distance so he could snag a meal. Just like he would on a beautiful day in late spring.

It dawned on me I’d been pretty much being stupid. As the sun finally poked itself above the horizon I found myself asking God to give me contentment. Asking to be content whether my surroundings are meager and unpleasant, or pleasant and bountiful.

Lord, let me be content.

Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either. But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that. 
1 Timothy 6:6-8