The Secret to Contentment on the Merry-Go-Round of Life

If you’ve never been flung around and around on a classic 1960s playground merry-go-round, you haven’t lived—or nearly died. Looking back, it seems our playgrounds were more about survival skills than play. No wonder we could ride our bikes around town all day without supervision as long as we were home before dark. Who wanted to mess with kids who had survived the merry-go-round? 

What does this have to do with contentment? Let me explain. 

Life is like a 1960s merry-go-round. It’s not a gentle carousel that rotates slowly while we sit atop cute animals, bobbing and smiling for pictures. Instead, life in this world flings us around at lightning speed, and when we lose our grip, it casts us into a heap on the hard ground, broken and bloodied. 

Unless we know the secret. 

The Secret to Contentment on a 1960s Merry-Go-Round

Early in my merry-go-round adventures, I would climb onto the platform and grip one of the steel bars along the edge. Mom would spin me ever so gently, and I would beam with delight.

Then I went to elementary school. 

Mom no longer spun me. So-called friends with sinister glints in their eyes took over. They whirled the merry-go-round faster and faster, ignoring my cries to slow down. My grip began to slip, and my body slumped against the centrifugal force that threatened to hurl me off and onto the ground—unlike the kids I noticed in the middle of the merry-go-round. They stood upright against the center pole and beamed with delight.

I had to get to that center pole. 

In this ride called life, there is only one safe place: holding fast to the immovable center pole. Christ and the truth of His Word are that center pole. They are also the secret to contentment and delighted smiles. 

The Apostle Paul’s Merry-Go-Round Life

The apostle Paul wrote an astounding (and seemingly absurd) statement about contentment in his letter to the Philippians. Before we consider that statement, let’s look at some facts about his life as a Christian, which he shared in a letter to the Corinthian church. 

Paul wrote that he had received thirty-nine lashes on five different occasions (forty lashes was considered lethal). He endured three beatings with rods, one stoning, three shipwrecks, and one treacherous overnight adrift in the waters of the ocean. He faced dangers in the seas, in the wilderness, and in cities. He was threatened by robbers, his own countrymen, Gentiles, and false teachers (2 Cor. 11:23–28).

About ten or more years later, when Paul wrote Philippians, he had also survived a venomous snakebite, another shipwreck, more arrests, and many more dangers. Paul lived in a world that must have felt like a turbocharged 1960s merry-go-round. 

With these realities in mind, consider Paul’s astounding statement on contentment: 

In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:12–13)

Through Christ in Us—The Secret to Contentment

Many believers throughout history have suffered like Paul. I haven’t. I’ve endured none of what he did. Yet contentment has often seemed as elusive as Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster. Thankfully, Paul’s letter assures us that our circumstances don’t determine our contentment. In Christ, contentment is not elusive; it’s assured. Why? Because it’s not found within us. It’s found through Christ in us. 

But what does that look like practically? 

Jesus explained this truth to His disciples when He said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me” (John 15:5).

He is the source of life. We are the recipients. As we abide in Him—clinging firmly to the center pole—His Spirit produces fruit in us, including contentment. In our own strength, we cannot produce even a bite of spiritual fruit. Christ alone is our source of strength and power to do all the Father calls us to do. Contentment flows as a by-product of trusting Him.

No matter how wildly our lives spin—or who seems to be spinning the merry-go-round—in Christ, we have everything we need for every moment, including contentment. 

The Bully on the Playground

Satan, the bully on the playground and the enemy of our souls, had it out for Paul. He wanted to spin Paul off the ride and into destruction. He sent Paul a “messenger,” which Paul described as a thorn in his side. Whether that thorn was a physical ailment, a persistent adversary, or something else entirely, Paul did not specify. But we know it was relentless. 

If Paul had been strong enough in his own strength, he would have immediately rid himself of that wretched thorn. But he wasn’t—and he knew he never could be. So instead, he prayed. And prayed. 

I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. (2 Corinthians 12:8–9)

What Satan intended for evil, God used to bless Paul (and us) by teaching him the omnipotent power and all-sufficient grace of Christ. Through that thorn, Paul learned that God’s grace was enough to sustain him in every trial and to anchor his soul in true contentment—contentment in Christ—no matter the circumstances. 

Some trials will never go away. If you’ve lost a loved one, you understand this all too well. Yet Paul teaches us a glorious truth: even when God does not remove the trial, He gives sufficient grace to endure it with contentment in Him. Not merely with resigned acceptance, but with deep, peace-filled, rejoicing-in-the-Lord-who-is-our-strength contentment. 

True soul contentment.

Know the Truth

We can’t control every aspect of our merry-go-round life, but we can choose whether we’ll know and cling to the truth God has poured out on every page of His Word. 

Read His Word. 

Know it. Let it sink into your heart and soul. 

No matter what you face, cling boldly to the truth—and to the secret Paul learned that transforms panic into praise and complaints into contentment. Trust in Christ, who is powerful in you. 

Hold fast to Him and to His Word, and you will not be shaken. Instead, you will be “strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father” (Col. 1:11–12). 

Hold On to the Truth—and Smile

Do you feel too weak to stand in your trials and too powerless to muster even an ounce of hope, much less contentment? Does it seem as though you can’t hold on much longer—as if at any second you might lose your grip and slam to the ground in a broken, bloodied heap? 

Satan would love for you to despair and bemoan your weakness. Instead, boast in it. Remember what Paul both taught and modeled: Christ’s power is perfected in weakness. He works mightily in those who know they can’t depend on their own strength but instead fully rely on the risen Savior who conquered sin and death.

When life feels like an out-of-control 1960s merry-go-round, claw your way, if necessary, back to the center pole—back to the immovable and unfailing truth of Christ and His Word. 

Hold fast to the pole in the center and never let go. His grace is sufficient for you. 

Your merry-go-round life may spin wildly, but never beyond Christ’s infinite power to hold you. 

Rooted in Him and strengthened in His might, you can ride in faith instead of fear. And you can smile with true soul contentment, because you are clinging to this unshakable truth: the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. His promises never fail. His grace is sufficient for you—in any and every circumstance—today, tomorrow, and always.