You ever worry you’re complacent or stuck in your schedule, especially if busyness abounds? What would it look like to find contentment instead?

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Choosing Contentment Over Complacency

Lauren Ferree

Anxious (adj.) 1. Experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

They might as well have used the words “Lauren Ferree” as the synonym.

I envied the relaxed kids in college who would wake up and not know what their day would hold. I could tell you what shift I would be working in five weeks, let alone five hours. But I quickly learned that God doesn’t work that way. One of my mentors used to tell me, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”

Ain’t that the truth?!

After graduating from college, I listened to that advice and spent about four months living out of a backpack and hostels across Europe. I got bit by the nomadic bug and decided to move 1,500 miles away from Los Angeles (population: 3.9 million) to Oklahoma City (population: 600k). Since I can remember, I’ve been a polarizing type. I either love it, or I hate it…. same goes with my plans, I am all in or all out.

I defined the unknown as “complacent.” 

If I wasn’t working on something, or towards something, I would call myself lazy. If my planner wasn’t full, I would pick up projects or shifts to fill the blank spaces. Then I moved. Life here in Oklahoma is slower, people are nicer, and the simple things are what make me smile. Moving away from home and not knowing a soul out here, I quickly married my job. It was easy to spend time working to occupy the loneliness…. then God started stirring something in me.

Through the mouths of pastors and through Scripture, I learned how important peace-of-mind really is. By slowing down, I witnessed the pace of Oklahoma becoming shockingly peaceful. It’s been one year since I moved out here, and I’m realizing how it’s made a clear impact on me.

Being content means being fulfilled with the day – tomorrow will come.

One of my favorites, Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Each day also has enough of its own. Each day is enough. What does that mean, to be enough? It sounded like another lukewarm word like complacent. But it’s not; it’s full. It’s being satisfied with the present, it’s watching the mouths of the person you’re talking to instead of watching the clock; it’s going to bed smiling because you made it count.

Complacent is “there’s nothing I can do about it” while contentment is “life is good.”

Realizing that each day is enough reminded me how awesome each day is. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven” – Genesis 28:16-17. Contentment isn’t a lukewarm complacency, it’s a fiery hot humility; it’s a gratified gratitude. No matter how God writes this journey He’s planned for me, instead of wrestling Him for the pen, I surrender smiling in contentment and trust.