Contentment

In the last 3 years my life has taken alot of turns. It has been about 3 years now since I had my super fight with Pablo Popavich. I can still remember that day building up in my head as this big stepping stone in my competitive career. Pablo was "the man" and I was up next. Then of course after the fight had taken place life went on just as it always does. Soon after my fight with Pablo I also had a big write up coming out in the Frederick Magazine. This too, built up in my head as a big moment in my life. Of course, as the day passed, life went on just as it always does. About a month later Caty and I were married and this surely was a big turning point in my life but yet life continued to move just as it always does. Not according to our plan to wait 3 years to have children but according to God's perfect timing, Caty and I found out she was pregnant not 3 years but 3 months after we were married. Since then we have had a son, bought our first home, and have our 2nd baby due November 3rd. I can remember each and every time feeling like I am taking on a new direction in my life but just like it always does, life went on. The big moments in our life that we work, wait and hope for are only just that, a moment. They come and they go as we yearn for more.

Now I am waiting to get a loan to fund our new Academy in anticipation of taking this next step in life even though I know it will come and pass just like everything else. One thing I have learned through all of these experiences is that life within itself is never truly fulfilling. What is more fulfilling in this world than having a beautiful, loving wife and bearing children with her? What a great blessing. Even this, however, can not quench the thirst of contentment. Nothing in this world can quench the thirst of contentment. We are all racing around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to find or accomplish that one thing that will make us content. We long for contentment. We need contentment to have peace.

I have a job that I love. I have been doing martial arts for over 25 years now and I still love it. I love to be able to teach and share with others my perspective and my interpretation of martial arts. Again, what a great blessing! Does my job make me content? No. It can't make me content because there is more to life than the things we can do and accomplish. We were created to accomplish many things. We are created to enjoy those things and be excited by them. In fact in the book of Genesis God says to "Cultivate the earth" and to "Be fruitful and multiply" and that is what we do. So why aren't we fulfilled by it? Well, excitement and contentment aren't the same. The next part in our mission is to glorify God in all we do. Contentment is giving back to the creator what He has given us. He has given us life and we have to give our lives back to Him in all we do. The greatest hope in having a son is that he will look up to you, honor you and glorify you through his actions and behavior. I am not saying that your son or daughter should want to be you but that they should want to be like you. It would hurt me deeply if my son ever said he didn't want to be like me. God wants us be like Him and in doing so glorify Him. Is it selfish for God to want us to be like Him? No. Is it selfish for me to want my son to be like me? Absolutely not. There is peace in a child's heart when they have a father or mother that they love even to the point of hoping to be like them. My son will never be content unless he has a father that he wants to be like. We will never be content unless establish a relationship with God that is just the same. We can never be God and my son can never be me nor would I want either but God has provided through His word the way to know Him and through Jesus the way to Him and through His Holy Spirit the power to be transformed and share in His likeness. I said before that we need contentment to have peace but we also need peace to have contentment. Peace is simply to know the one true God and to share in His grace.

Having said that, everything I do has a very special meaning and purpose to it. To glorify God. It doesn't matter if I am teaching class or taking out the trash, I do both of these things to glorify God. I can be content in all things when I know I am glorifying God in doing so. Oh what peace it brings my soul to know that God loves me so that he would ever use me to glorify Him!