Facing Life

This is the contented man. The contented man says, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places." Not that his lines never fall into unpleasant places. He may have many such experiences. But he remembers and magnifies his pleasant experiences, not the unpleasant ones. He counts his joys and blessings, not his sorrows and woes. If he remembers his cloudy days, he remembers that they have been few in comparison with his days of sunshine. And he remembers, too, that no clouds ever covered any of his days but that they had a silver lining.

The contented man says, "I have a goodly heritage." Not that he is rich; he may be poor. Poverty renders some unhappy; but he does not make his happiness dependent upon external things. So far as such things go, if he has but little, he counts it a goodly heritage. He does not consider the little he has as a mean heritage, because it is not as much as some others have. He possesses a wealth of spiritual resources which enables him to make a goodly heritage of the smallest portion of earthly goods.

Contentment is something not determined by outward conditions and circum-stances. It depends upon what we have within, not what we have without. If we have God and what God can mean in one's life, we have enough to make us content and happy, regardless of what we may lack of other things, regardless of all the outward vicissitudes of life. He who can say, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup," is the one who can say, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage." And herein is revealed the source and secret of real and genuine contentment