Overcoming Claustrophobia with Contentment.

I found myself calling home tonight with a frustrated soul.  I was feeling claustrophobic.  I never expected to feel so at home in Belfast; more than just studying here I have fallen for the character.  And yet half way through my degree I find myself with itchy feet.  To a gypsy heart, three years seems like a long time.

And do you know what my mother blamed? Facebook.  Mum is evangelical about the woes of false and constant communication, I usually just roll my eyes but I see her point here.  The root is in the comparison.

I compare myself to others.  For whatever insecurity I feel at that particular time I am met with the smiling face of somebody who has mastered it.  There are newly weds, pregnancy pictures, travel photos, people living up the party lifestyle, others writing reflective poetry about their awesome spiritual life, people working hard having found their career and then there are those that simply look great.

I compare myself to myself.  Its easy to look back on life and compare the seasons.  Times of travel or a group of friends; wishing to be younger again or yearning to be settled as a wife or a mother.  I have ideas of where I should be at this point and I'm quick to critique my shortcomings.

Each comparison designed to rob me of wholeness in myself and of feeling joy for the other person.  The Devil smirks, and I grow frustrated.

But I read the other day,

"But godliness with contentment is great gain" 1 Timothy 6:6

This advice is completely counter to our culture, something I'm looking for more of in my life.  In a society that seeks to take our dignity and sell it back to us, we must not fall into the comparison trap but instead intentionally guard our contentment each day.