I’m pretty sure no one goes into cross-cultural ministry for the money.

Do you struggle to be content? Living in a foreign culture, perhaps without many of the amenities and “normal things” we’d like to have, can be a breeding ground for discontentment. It’s not that we expect to be wealthy or live a life of luxury, but would it be too much to ask for power that stays on predictably or for a medical system that seems a bit more, what’s the word, modern? 

In all seriousness, whether you live in a third-world country or a European city, I imagine that you struggle with contentment from time to time. I know I do. It can be easy to look at our peers in the US and think about the life we might have had if we hadn’t moved abroad. Perhaps you worry about how you’ll send your kids to college or what will happen when it’s time to retire. Or maybe you just grow weary of “doing without” certain things, big or small, that are commonplace in the US or other parts of the world.  

The apostle Paul uses financial language here with the word “gain”: he writes that godliness along with contentment is profitable, that we gain from it. Contentment can be an inner struggle; if we don’t verbalize our discontentment, no one might know about it. Paul seems to be saying that we could live an outwardly-godly life but have inward discontentment; he challenges us that godliness along with contentment, but not without it, brings about gain. What kind of gain? The gain of living out who we are in Christ, people bought with a price and who live trusting their heavenly Father to provide every step of the way. The gain of loving money too much and falling into the traps of materialism or greed, traps that present themselves no matter the state of our bank account.

We have much to gain in cultivating it and much to lose in harboring a discontented spirit. Contentment may come more easily in some seasons than in others, but it’s worth fighting for.