The theme of this passage is contentment. This is a virtue that is hardly esteemed at all in our culture. In fact, you might say our culture is hostile to the very idea of contentment.
In the worlds of sports and business, if you are contented, you may even be criticized as someone who isn't ambitious enough, hungry enough, feisty enough to be an asset to your company or your team. It sometimes seems as if the entire goal of the advertising industry is not to sell products but to foment discontent, by stimulating desires for things we cannot afford and do not need; by inflaming appetites that cannot possibly be gratified righteously; and by appealing to lusts that ought to be suppressed rather than cultivated and encouraged. The world is constantly screaming at us that we should not be content with our lives and our possessions. Contentment is not an easy thing to cultivate in a culture such the one in which we live...
