The Path to Contentment

Contentment involves avoiding complacency and agentically choosing to submit one’s self to God as opposed to pursuing self-interest or worldly ambitions.

Readership: All
Theme: Consolidating Masculinity
Length: 1,500 words
Reading Time: 8 minutes

As much as we may wish to find contentment in life, the way forward to that end is not always so clear, as I discussed in Contentment (2023/1/16).  For some, it is rather elusive. This post will examine the intricacies of how one may arrive unto a state of Contentment.

The path to Contentment is somewhat similar to The Three Step Path to God (2018/9/27), however, Contentment is a cycle as opposed to a destination, as can be seen in the flowchart below.

I’ll explain the flowchart in terms of the loops therein.

Loop 1 – Autopilot

Since everyone experiences discontent and disappointments in life, Loop 1 is the default setting.  Loop 1 is characterized by a lack of agency, which I’ve often referred to as “running on autopilot”.  Loop 1 contains the Abyss, the Blue Pill, the Carousel, the Covert Contracts, the defense mechanisms, the feral SMP, the mantras, the narcissistic, the narratives, the nauseating pleasantries, the nine-to-five, the philosophical-isms, the political charades, the politically correct, the proscribed Life Scripts, the psychopathic, the quiet desperation, the sex-centrism, the social movements, and all the lies, while all the ugliness of humanity is censored, concealed, hidden away, kept secret, and tucked neatly out of sight.

¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, ²⁰ idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21 (NASB)

Also see 2 Timothy 3:1-7.

The intra-loop challenge is to keep one’s faults and sins hidden, and to cope.  Addictive behaviors (alcoholism, gambling, illicit sex, jerking off, etc.), entertainment, fantasy (entitlement, gnosticism, p0rn, etc.), Hopium™ (e.g. false gospels, pop psychology, self-help, Therapeutic Moralistic Deism, etc.), and secrecy aid in doing this.  Of note, the OASIS and female online personalities who parrot Red Pill lore constitute a powerful combination of entertainment, fantasy, and Hopium™, hence their mass following.

The larger challenge is to escape this loop by confessing sin, repenting, and/or exercising agency.  The dynamics of this loop make it very difficult to do so.

Loop 2 – Worldly Ambitions

For those who can develop agentic capacity, most fall in line with the Worldly Order.  Loop 1 effectively serves to teach and train people to do so, should they ever escape the loop.  The intra-loop challenge is to compete and progress along the proscribed life scripts, and the grand majority spend most of their time and energies doing so.  Very few actually succeed, and even fewer ever attain a sense of contentment, and if/when they do, they tend to fall into a state of complacency.  Their prime objectives at this point are (1) to compete with the Jones’ for worldly status and dominance, (2) to maintain and possibly reinforce their precarious position in life and (3) to control and manage the sheeple who are stuck in Loop 1.  We often refer to these worldly agents as “the Elite”.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 9:25 (ESV)

Loop 3 – Periodic Godliness

Among those few who can attain agentic capacity, a small number will come to realize the emptiness and vanity of the Worldly Order and how any contentment it might bring is elusive, laborious, comes at a heavy cost to one’s self and others, and is tentative on a large number of factors which are difficult to control.

Then they may hear the Message of the Gospel, with Jesus saying,

²⁸ “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  ³⁰ For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)

It is at this time that their eyes of faith may be opened to see an alternate parallel paradigm in which finding satisfaction in the love of God and in pleasing Him becomes a real alternative to the hope of ever finding satisfaction from the grinding slavery under the principalities and powers of this World. In God’s paradigm, one’s progress becomes dependent upon one’s consistent obedience to God’s Word, prayer, and trusting Him moment by moment, rather than on the conditions, dictates, and market dynamics of the Worldly System.  Upon choosing God and letting go of one’s worldly attachments to embrace the Lord, a period of temptations, tests, and trials will ensue as one makes the treacherous leap from the Worldly paradigm to that of the Spiritual.  But if one sticks with the Spirit by faith, then after this transformation has settled down, an eternal contentment, AKA peace with God, begins to soak deep into one’s soul.

At this point, the requirements of faith involve staying free from the snares of Loop 1, pursuing one’s God ordained Mission, maintaining agency, and developing one’s agency to become moral in nature.  Some find this too difficult (to let go of their sinful desires), too disappointing (to forsake their worldly ambitions), or too punishing (to endure the persecutions and temptations), and thus abandon the faith, defaulting to either the distractions and pleasures of Loop 1 or the entrancing enticements of Loop 2, depending on his constitution and state in life.

For those who can defy these temptations, the opposite risk that men face here is that if one finds Contentment too early or too easily in the transformation, then one is tempted to become lazy and thereby fail to follow through on working out the entirety of his faith domain. Complacency soon sets in, accompanied by an ever increasing number of casual sins of omission, and eventually the undercurrents of an uninspired and aimless life cause him to drift back into Loop 1. Thoughts of his eternal salvation having already been finished serve to refute and settle any objections arising in his conscience.

So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

James 4:17 (NASB)

Loop 4 – Continual Godliness

Loop 4 has the most number of decisions and steps. It also has the most intensive labor for the Lord. It requires a man to pursue his God ordained Mission in life, and carry it to completion. It requires a man to Count the Cost and to deny or forsake his personal interests that do not serve his Mission, do not glorify Christ, and/or will lull him back into Loop 1 if not contained. It requires an active volition of the will to exercise discernment and moral agency — not just once or a few times, but on a continually ongoing, lifelong basis. It also requires a vigilant dedication to Christ in the face of suffering and temptation.

It is in this context that St. Paul says in regard to the eternal,

Godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:6 (ESV)

Escaping Complacency

Note that there is no “End” to the flowchart.  This is because mortal Death is the end, and it is not our rightful place to choose.

As you can see, Loops 1, 2, and 3 lead back to Complacency.  This is no coincidence, but is the Edenic curse on men that reflects the archetypal Sin of Adam.  The curse is that men must continually work, perform, and produce, and there is always a constant temptation to slack off and slide into Complacency.

The typical way out of Complacency is to experience a negative motivator — discontent, or something akin to it, such as desperation, disappointment, grief, guilt, shame, etc.  The spiritual purpose of this discontent, as was stated before, is to drive one to a response – to exercise agency and ascend to a higher loop. For this, we can be thankful when we experience discontentment and disappointment in life, as it is the lovingkindness of God goading us to become alive.

In certain cases, a positive motivator, such as desire, inspiration, vision, or sheer willpower may lead one out of complacency.  In this case, the person’s recovery is determined by his ability to secure and maintain that catalyst.  Since the dawn of time, marriage, regular sexual relations, and family have juxtaposed and harnessed men’s desire, inspiration, and vision to serve as a motivation to action and ambition.  Modern feminism has effectively destroyed and/or shunted this vehicle for an increasing number of men. It is important for Christian men and women to keep marriage and sex confined within God’s Order such that it can motivate one and others to live for Christ, and not allow it to become a goal of Worldly contentment in which marriage is debased and desire dissipated. I will explore this aspect further in the next post.

It is my prayer that the psychological satisfaction the reader may find in reading this analysis would not lead him/her to Complacency, but rather, that it should inspire his/her awareness of the larger process of redemption and specifically what remains to be done towards the working out of his/her faith.

Related

• Σ Frame (NovaSeeker): Viewpoints on Man’s Confusion about How God Works in the Life of a Believer (2021/3/29)
• Σ Frame (NovaSeeker): Juxtaposing the Temporal and the Eternal (2021/4/26)