Paralyzing Discontentment

First Timothy 6 says that the love of money is the root of all evils.  I have heard that quoted countless times, and I have also heard it misquoted countless times to say: Money is the root of all evils. 

Since money is an inanimate object, it cannot be evil; just as the internet or guns or knives cannot be evil.  These things become what their owners are.  If the owner of a gun is evil, the gun will be used for evil.  The internet in the hands of good people produces good things. And so on.

I have thought often about the love of money verse, and as I was reading it again today, I noticed something else.  Four verses ahead of it is the verse which says: But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out. 

That says to me that I can be godly but still be discontent.  That is a bad combination because, for me, the discontentment pretty much turns me into a worthless blob on quests for artificial happiness. 

So why on God’s green earth would I become discontent?  It would be the same reason, I think, as it was for Eve.  She had it all yet she became, I think, bored. And this bred discontentment. The serpent used these human foibles and tempted her with more.  More knowledge, more freedom, more power, and more excitement.

So the serpent continues to tempt us all to want more of what we don’t have, or of what we have little of.  We think that if we have more widgets and money we will be content.  But it is not so.  Watch one episode of Entertainment Tonight and see that the Hollywood Types have more trouble than the average person even though they have everything.  They are rich and pretty but they are unhappy and discontent. Their marriages don’t last, they are picked up for drunk driving, they are on drugs, their facelifts have fallen... the list goes on and on.

Timothy’s words ring so true:  For they that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition.

Recognizing and repenting of my tendency to be discontent for no good reason helps me refocus my sights on what is important and what God wants me to be and what He wants me to do with the time and resources He has given me.