Twenty years ago I came across a gem of wisdom that was soon to save my sanity. The thing that amazes me now is how easily I could have missed it. I was feeling happy and fulfilled at the time, satisfied with my life and where it seemed to be taking me. I could have brushed those words aside as not applying to me, but I was soon glad I hadn't. Things took an unexpected downward turn, and those words became a reference point that helped get me through the next few difficult months.

"If we would all be satisfied to fulfill our place in life and not want any more or any less, God could make us very happy. But we sometimes make ourselves unhappy by being dissatisfied, because we haven't learned, as the apostle Paul did, to be content in whatever state we're in" (Philippians 4:11).

That doesn't mean we should be content to continue on in our bad habits or stop striving to be better people. We also shouldn't take a fatalist attitude when our circumstances aren't what they could or should be.

But getting back to my experience of twenty years ago, that little bit of advice helped me realize that while my circumstances had suddenly changed, that didn't change the things that counted most in life. It didn't change who I was or my main goals, nor did it change God's love for me. Therefore it shouldn't rob me of the contentment I'd had before things fell apart. The happy ending? By focusing on what I still had and not what I had lost, I made it through that difficult time and came out happier in the end.

If circumstances sometimes get you down, I hope this issue of Activated will help you do the same.

Keith Phillips
For the Activated family