Contentment & Change

Do you have to like life, or a certain set of circumstances, to be a "Good Christian?"

Can you accept that life is what it is AND want to change it, without being discontent?
What does contentment - in a Christian context - really mean, anyway?

I think contentment is one of the concepts I struggle with the most.

I understand not being greedy, envious, anxious or worried (ok, those last two are hard for me)... but being satisfied with the way things are? It doesn't make sense to me.

Being dissatisfied often leads to change. Change is good. Change requires some measure of discontent or there wouldn't be a desire to change. God wants us to change, right? In positive, healthy and spiritually beneficial ways?

I could go 'round and 'round with questions.
That isn't really the point.

How can a Christian reconcile wanting change with being content?

It's probably no surprise that I'm not thrilled with my life. It's been a long time since I've been able to feel anything even remotely resembling contentment. I can't deny that my attitude about my circumstances has been more sinful than not.

However.

I'm coming to terms with it. My life is what it is and there are some things that I have no power to change. There are other things that I might be able to change at some point, but not right now. And then there are those things I actually do have control over, right now.

Like the Serenity Prayer says, the real wisdom comes in knowing the difference.
Maybe that's where contentment comes from?
Knowing the difference.
And accepting it.

I can't unlive my life and I can't unchoose my choices. I can, however, choose to do differently in the future. I can also choose how I react to my circumstances, whether I can change them or not. I'm starting to think my reactions to a crisis have only fed into the next one.

James Dobson once said, "Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." I'm starting to understand the truth in that statement.

I don't know if I will ever stop wishing some things had been different, or regretting sinful choices, but I think I can be unhappy with the way things have happened and accept their role in God's plan or my life.

I don't know what contentment is, but I hope it isn't defined as much by satisfaction as it is by acceptance.