Are You Content in your Present?

Has there been a time when you have been working your ass off just to level up in your career? Or you have this ambition you want to reach whatever it takes. Yet, this verse says you have to be content.

So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.

1 Peter 5:6-7 (MSG)

 How would that really sum up?

In the last six years, I have been working as a rank and file in the corporate world, with just a meager income to get me by. For so long, I have prayed to God that He’ll promote me because I know I have the skills and I can do any tasks given to me (too confident, I must say). But then, I do not get my prayers answered. My question back then was,  “why”?

Year in and year out, I’m seeing myself working as I can but I am not yet promoted in my workplace. So one day, I asked myself, what does promotion really mean? Does it indicate selling an idea to gain approval towards it? Or does it mean seeing yourself in a higher position than any of your colleagues such that it gives you self-worth?

The Bible says to be contented with what we have and what we are.
It does mean to accept whatever has been given to us and use those resources make the best product. It does mean that where God has put us, we should be working to the best that we can be, without expecting something in return, without demanding more than what is provided. 

Being contented means being happy with having little as with much, working for others like working for oneself, and accepting our fate as one that will build us, not enslave us. 

It is a test of my character to be contented when there are times that I see my colleagues living the life they’ve dreamed of — traveling abroad, marrying their chosen mate and working the job they’ve dreamed of while being paid handsomely. It is a test of my character to accept my situation where I just work to provide for my family, and I have to save up for a year just to have 3-day, 2-night out of town vacation with my family. It is always a test of my character to stay where I currently am and not reach for my dreams. 

But the Bible also says be contented with who you are. 

So, it does mean that if I am ambitious about something, I have to go get it, work my ass off without demanding and expecting something in return. It does mean I have to wait for the right moment, and instead enjoy my present duties — love every bit of it — such that I won’t think it’s work. 

Being contented means being passionate with who you are as a person, pursuing your passion, loving life, and sharing kindness where you are planted. 

And when you least expect it, God will uphold you in His hand and level up the field. As having equipped you with the skills and character during the testing season, you will be prepared to take on a new role. You will be prepared to soar higher than ever before, but this time, you won’t fall because you have failed many times that you know what to do next. When God promotes you, there’s no minute wasted, you will be doing something greater that would impact the world — all because at one point in your life, you’ve accepted your fate and instead shared your happiness with them.