Sep 8, 2026 · 22 min · 12 segments
In this episode, David Wollen explores where Christian contentment begins and how we can cultivate it through the ups and downs of life.
David WollenHost
Lauren CuevasHostKathyGuest
There's a school of thought that says the worth of something is determined solely by what another party is willing to pay for it.
For example, the worn out pair of armchairs I recently posted on Facebook Marketplace.
Well, I had to adjust my expectations down to what they would actually sell for.
Now, this paradigm is not universally applicable because there are some things which are exceedingly valuable, but they cannot be bought or sold.
How much are things like this worth? And today, specifically, I want to ask this question.
How much is contentment worth? And more specifically, how much is contentment worth to you? In the 1640s, one of the great Puritan writers, a man by the name of Jeremiah Burroughs, wrote a book called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.
He compares true contentment and specifically Christian contentment to a rare jewel.
The average person in the world may not be able to recognize it when they see it.
And like a jewel, you're not going to find it simply sitting on the surface for you to bend down and pick up.
And once you finally possess it, there is yet more work to be done before it will glitter and shine with all the beauty it contains within it.
Whatever else the world calls contentment, that will be only a cheap counterfeit at best.
And if we are convinced that this is true, the question is then, where do we start? How do we pursue contentment in the Christian life? And with this in mind, a few years ago, I wrote an issue for the Anchor devotional called Contentment in the Chaos.
It contains 31 daily devotions pulling from passages in the Old and New Testament and tracing out how God's people cultivate contentment in the midst of the chaos which life often brings our way.
There's a school of thought that says the worth of something is determined solely by what another party is willing to pay for it.
For example, the worn out pair of armchairs I recently posted on Facebook Marketplace.
Well, I had to adjust my expectations down to what they would actually sell for.
Now, this paradigm is not universally applicable because there are some things which are exceedingly valuable, but they cannot be bought or sold.
How much are things like this worth? And today, specifically, I want to ask this question.
How much is contentment worth? And more specifically, how much is contentment worth to you? In the 1640s, one of the great Puritan writers, a man by the name of Jeremiah Burroughs, wrote a book called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.
He compares true contentment and specifically Christian contentment to a rare jewel.
The average person in the world may not be able to recognize it when they see it.
And like a jewel, you're not going to find it simply sitting on the surface for you to bend down and pick up.
And once you finally possess it, there is yet more work to be done before it will glitter and shine with all the beauty it contains within it.
Whatever else the world calls contentment, that will be only a cheap counterfeit at best.
And if we are convinced that this is true, the question is then, where do we start? How do we pursue contentment in the Christian life? And with this in mind, a few years ago, I wrote an issue for the Anchor devotional called Contentment in the Chaos.
It contains 31 daily devotions pulling from passages in the Old and New Testament and tracing out how God's people cultivate contentment in the midst of the chaos which life often brings our way.
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