“The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.”
Ecclesiastes 5:12
While flying home from Germany recently, I watched a few movies. One of the more unusual ones was A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. I found it while scrolling through the available titles and was intrigued. It had good actors, an interesting storyline, and I had eight hours to spare.
So I tuned in.
It’s a fantasy about two strangers who meet at a wedding and are given the chance to revisit important moments from their past, moments that helped shape who they became and where their lives were headed. Like you and me, they were flawed people carrying regrets, wounds, and longings they didn’t always know what to do with.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Ecclesiastes these days, and one of the film’s messages sounded a lot like the Teacher’s warning about the burden of wealth: the elusive and never-ending pursuit of more.
In this case, though, the movie wasn’t really about money or possessions. It was about the pursuit of happiness.
The two main characters, David and Sarah, were doing pretty well by most ordinary measures. They were functioning, achieving, surviving, even “crushing it” in ways the world tends to applaud.
But they weren’t at peace. They weren’t happy. At least, not for long.
Each time they reached for what they thought would finally satisfy them, it slipped through their fingers. The moment passed. The feeling faded. The hunger returned. Whatever they captured couldn’t hold the weight of their deepest longing.
That’s the trouble with chasing happiness as the goal. Happiness is a wonderful gift, but it makes a terrible god.
The magic of the movie allowed David and Sarah to become both actors and observers of their own lives. They were able to step back and see the stories they had been living in, including the moments when they gave in to fear, disappointment, pain, and desire.
In one of the movie’s best scenes, Sarah looks back on her 12-year-old self and hears her mother say:
“Choose to be content first and enjoy the moment of happiness that comes from that.”
That line stayed with me.
Movies have a way of holding up a mirror to our own lives. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey succeeds in the same way It’s a Wonderful Life does. Both films use make-believe to sharpen something deeply true:
Contentment is not the consolation prize.
Contentment is the doorway.
The apostle Paul plays this same contentment chord in his letter to the Philippians, but he adds something the movie could only hint at:
“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.”
The secret?
“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
Paul’s contentment wasn’t rooted in personality, circumstances, comfort, income, health, applause, or control. It wasn’t rooted in getting the life he always wanted.
It was rooted in Christ.
That’s why Jesus’ words in John 6 are so stunning:
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus was not offering a religious hobby, a little spiritual encouragement, or a motivational quote for the refrigerator.
He was offering Himself.
He was proclaiming that every longing of the human spirit eventually finds its true home in Him. Not because our circumstances always change. Not because life becomes easy. Not because every wound disappears overnight.
But because He is enough. Everything else eventually asks for more.
Jesus gives Himself.
In this big, bold, beautiful journey we are all taking, the only all-consuming pursuit that satisfies without fail is Jesus: to be with Him, to become like Him, and to do as He did.
Run the play: Choose contentment
Align your life with the One who created you, knows you, and loves you.
Finding Our Place in the Story 💡
Where do you feel the tension between pursuing happiness and learning contentment?
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