The Hamster Wheel

Life can be a lot like a treadmill. It can feel like no matter how many steps you take, you make no real progress. There is always something more, always one more step to reach the goal. And as you get within reach, the mat pulls you back and there is yet another step to take.

For example: I'm currently single, so I am asked many times when I'm going to get a boyfriend. My friend who is in a relationship gets asked when she's getting married. Another friend has been married for a few years, so she is now expected to have babies. And so the hamster wheel goes.

"Now you're a manager, when are you going to be become a senior manager?"
"Now you drive a this car, when are you going to buy a that car?"
"Now you live in this area, when are you going to move to that area?"

There is something in society that pushes us to have more, to want more, to ascend the neverending ladder. And yes, it's good to grow. It's good to have goals and dreams and develop through the seasons of our lives -- we don't want to stagnate.

But there needs to be a balance. There needs to be contentment in the season, in the moment we're in. Otherwise we're going to run ourselves ragged on the treadmill of life. Always busy, always striving, but achieving very little of eternal value. Because getting the boyfriend changes into needing a fiance and then a husband and then the father of your child. It will never be enough.

Phil 4:11-13 says: "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

Do we really know what it is to be content? Are you content with your current relationship status, your work title, your home address, your bank balance? Yes, improve, grow, invest and develop into your potential. But do it from a place of contentment, a place of knowing that whether or not you get the promotion or the boyfriend or the baby - Jesus is enough. He alone is enough.

Hebrews 13:5 says "Be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Because of that, we can have the courage to step off of the hamster wheel and embrace the moments we find ourselves in. And there we will find peace, contentment and hope for the future seasons of our lives, whenever they may be.

P.S. Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."