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How, after all, is contentment compatible with work, proper ambition, planning and goals? Am I being discontented if I decide that I want to read yet another book?

In the creation week, God’s contentment is temporally and eschatologically qualified. ”Good” means “Good for today,” but then the next day He does another good thing. To be content is to come to evening able to say “Good; things are done enough.” Even for God, contentment is not Stoic stasis; much less for us.

Eschatologically qualified too: God says “Good; enough” in the light of the next day, and in the light of the Sabbath toward which the whole week moves. So too throughout history, God is not statically satisfied with where things are right now, but satisfied with where they have come to, how much progress has been made toward His final end of summing up all things in the Son by the Spirit. The eschatological dimension is especially central for human contentment, since we are always exhorted to be content in the light of greater riches to come. On every Day 1 and on every Day 4, we rest satisfied in what has been accomplished, confident in God that more and greater is yet to come.

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