Good morning & happy Monday!
“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 things through him who gives me strength.”
– Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:11-13
Earlier this month a New York Federal Reserve report announced that credit card debt amongst Americans hit an all-time high of just over $1 trillion. That’s a 1 followed by twelve zeros … $1,000,000,000,000!
Yikes! This is bad news and a significant problem for a number of our fellow citizens. If you have not personally experienced the crippling effects of credit card debt at some point in your life I am sure you know someone who has.
According to LendingTree (2023 Credit Card Debt Statistics | LendingTree) the average American who carries a credit card balance is $7,279 in credit card debt.
Connecticut ranks as the state with the highest credit card debt with $9,408, Florida is #6 with $8,573, the state with the lowest credit card debt is Kentucky with $5,408.
The average credit card interest rate is 20.68%. On a $1 trillion balance that means that interest alone is over $206 billion a year! That’s $566 million a day just in interest charges!
I fully understand how there are life circumstances that at times dictate that credit card debt a necessity, so I am not here to judge … judging is way above my pay grade.
But, today I want to talk about what I believe to be a major underlying cause of credit card debt … lack of contentment.
Contentment is defined as “a state of happiness and satisfaction.”
I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me! I believe we could all use more contentment in our lives.
I believe that lack of contentment is an epidemic in our society. We can never have enough. The house needs to be bigger and nicer. The car needs to be faster and sportier. The boat needs to be more powerful and have greater capacity. On and on it goes with no end in sight. Once we get what we were so drastically striving for then it’s on to the next purchase. Lack of contentment can lead to all sorts of unhealthy places (greed, fear, unwise risk taking, etc.).
We are the wealthiest, freest, most connected society in the history of the world and yet so many of us are so far from contentment. Drug use, depression, suicide are all at record levels. How can this be?
As I wrote about a few months ago, I had an opportunity to take a missions trip to Guatemala earlier this summer. The precious people there have a fraction of what every person reading this has, and yet in many cases they seemed to me to be far more content than many Americans I know.
This breaks my heart because when we lack contentment how can we live the joy-filled life we desire.
It seems like so much of our society is built on the premise of sowing the seeds of discontentment in our lives.
If I watch a 3-hour sports game there are probably 6 commercial breaks with 4 commercials during each break. That’s 20 commercials an hour. During the 3 hours I’m watching around 60 commercials. Virtually every single one of them is telling me that I am missing something in my life. Their messaging tells me I’m not fit enough, healthy enough, skinny enough, good looking enough, strong enough, popular enough, or whatever “enough” they can convince me I am missing. If I only drive this car, drink this beverage, purchase this product, or sign up for this subscription then I would be content. But, it’s a lie.
To all of that “you don’t have enough” messaging I say ENOUGH! I choose contentment.
Here is a 3 ½ minute YouTube video that I have shared for many years that I think does a great job of explaining how advertising works to manipulate our minds:
How Commercials Get Us To Buy Crap We Don’t Need – YouTube
I am a driven what’s-next kind of guy, so the idea of contentment is a struggle for me. I most certainly want to be content, but I don’t at all want to be complacent … those are very different things.
There are a lot of things in life that we have no control over, A LOT, but we do have control over our attitude. As we live and navigate through our self-centered, right-now, anything-goes culture I would encourage all of us to pause and make a conscious, intentional decision to choose an attitude of gratefulness and contentment.
One of my favorite quotes is from Confucius (roughly 500 BC): “The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.” Today I choose to be a man who is content.
What a blessing it would be if my attitude were more like the Apostle Paul’s in the opening quote. I will be making an intentional effort to do that today.
Thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts on this topic. As we grow together I believe the best is yet to come and that contentment is a critical part of becoming the best version of ourselves.
It’s an honor to serve you. Please reach out if there is anything we can do to support you.
Make it a great week ahead!