Be content this holiday season because you can't take it with you

  • Published
  • By Chaplain (Maj.) Warren "Chappy" Watties
  • 30th Space Wing Chaplain
Have you ever met a truly content person? I have! His name is Frank. He is a man who is always joyful and lives a life of peace, desiring nothing.

Many of us are not content. Teenagers want to be adults, while adults wish they were children again. Many single warriors want to be married, while some married warriors wish they were single again. Married couples with no children can't wait to have children, while those with children want to know how to send them back. People are not content with their jobs, schools, co-workers, bosses, neighbors, looks or their location. To have real joy in life and in this holiday season, we must learn to be content.

How often we forget we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out! What if we were to change our desire for wanting more, to one of giving more? Instead of shopping and buying more things, what if we instead went shopping in our garages? I believe we have several boxes that haven't been opened for the past three PCS moves that would bless several families in our community. The economic crisis in America has caused several in our military community to go without many essentials in life. If we could learn to be content with what we have, we could make a big difference, in the lives of Airmen and families in our communities.

Leo Tolstoy wrote a story entitled, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" In this story, he writes about the life of a poor peasant farmer by the name of Paham. Paham worked hard every day to provide for his family, but he had a strong desire to own land to lift his family out of poverty. He was first blessed by a woman in the next village who sold him 50 acres of land. She made a deal with him as long as he could pay it off in one year. Paham took all his savings of 100 rubles, sold his colt and was able to pay off the land in one year. He and his wife were very happy.

One day a man from another village spoke of land beyond the Volga that was so great, rye grew as high as a horse. Paham's heart was filled with desire. He said, "Why should I suffer in this hole, if one can live so well elsewhere?" So he sold his land and he and his family purchased 500 acres of land. He was now 10 times better off than he had been. Paham loved his new land and filled it with good crops and heads of cattle.

Later Paham wasn't satisfied with his land. He wanted more! During one of his journeys, he met a chief in a nearby village. The chief made him a deal. He said, "For 1,000 rubles, you can have as much land as you can walk off from sun up to sundown; however, if you don't make it back, the 1,000 rubles are mine!" Paham said, "It's a deal! See you at sunrise tomorrow."

Paham placed 1,000 rubles in the chief's foxtail hat and started his journey. He thought to himself, "What a large tract of land I will walk off. I can easily do 35 miles in a day." At about noon, the sun became very hot, but he didn't turn back because he wanted more land. At mid-afternoon, Paham became very tired and worried that he wouldn't make it back in time. He ran as fast as he could, taking off first his shirt and then his shoes. As he got within 15 minutes of sundown, he could hear the crowd yelling, "Don't give up ... you can make it ... just keep running!"

At the very last second, Paham reached the chief's foxtail hat and fell to the ground. All the land he had covered was now his. Paham's servant came running up and tried to raise him but saw blood flowing from his mouth. Paham was dead!

His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave six feet long from head to toe. This was all the land he needed.

How much is enough? When will we learn to be content? Remember, no matter how much rank, power and stuff you get ... you can't take it with you!

As Henry David Thoreau once said, "A person is rich in the proportion to the number of things he/she can afford to let alone!"