Pavlov's Dogs and Contentment...

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov won a Nobel Prize in 1904 for his research in behavior modification with dogs. I remember studying this in my Intro to Psychology class. He realized that his dogs associated food with the ringing of a small bell. Everytime he rang the bell, he fed the dogs, which led him to notice that the dogs would begin to salivate when they heard the bell ring. His discovery led to a break-through in the study and work ofpsychological conditioning in humans. Basically, he figured out that the dogs' response to the bell was learned behavior.



Lily Eoff

We used behavior modification with our Bichon, Lily. Knowing that Bichons are highly intelligent and trainable (they were once known as circus dogs!), we set out to teach her to do tricks when she was a young puppy. Our problem was getting her to recognize and then emulate the desired behavior; getting her to take a treat was the easy part! Take barking for instance. Either Garry or I would say, "Bark!" then bark and show a treat. We did this over and over. I'm sure anyone looking in the window would have thought about calling the guys in the white coats! However, eventually, Lily got the picture and at the command "Bark!" she finally let out a pitiful gurgle that we praised furiously and then fed her a treat. Well, she liked that, so we continued and she became very astute at barking for her treats. Eventually, she learned to stand, sit, roll over, sneeze, and even dance. I won't go into the details of how all of those were achieved (or you might call the white-coat guys!). The point is that all those tricks were learned behaviors - that's Nobel Prize material!!

Okay, I know I sort of got carried away, but stay with me - I have another point to make, and it's an important one.

I won't string you out - here it is: Contentment, emotional and spiritual, is a learned behavior.

So, what is contentment, really? The word means satisfaction or ease of mind. That's easy to understand as I think of emotions - easy to understand, not necessarily to achieve. Spiritually, it means agreeing with God that everything I have is everything I need. That one is not easy to understand or achieve!

The opposite of contentment is anxiety. Paul had this say about anxiety -

• "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:6-7

So emotional and spiritual contentment leads to a kind of peace that the human mind can experience, but not understand enough to put into words. When you experience that kind of peace, you just know it!

Paul was not the type of person to naturally experience contentment and peace. Most Type A's are hard-wired for just the opposite. Their minds are always going in a hundred directions, thinking of a thousand things that need to be done, and a thousand ways to accomplish those things. It's hard to "sit and smell the roses" when your mind won't rest! Looking at Paul's life before he met Jesus and even after he met Jesus, we see a man that was always on a mission, pushing ahead to accomplish his goals.

But as Paul matured in his walk with Christ, he gradually evolved into a man who was still on a mission, but one who was sitting with Christ more and smelling the the spiritual roses, so to speak. He realized that his road to contentment and peace had been a process, and he gives a tremendous explanation in Phil 4:10-13:

• But I rejoice in the Lord greatly...Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Did you catch that? Paul, himself, said he had learned to be content! He didn't just wake up one morning with a thorn in the flesh and say to himself, "It's okay. I'm content with this." No! He begged the Lord three times to remove it - he wasn't content or at peace with it! (2 Cor. 12:7-10) But God did not remove it, and yet, Paul learned to be content with the thorn and other aspects of his human condition. In fact, when he wrote that he had learned to be content in whatever circumstances, he was in prison for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus.

So, how do we learn to have that kind of contentment in our lives? Just like Paul - we must walk with Jesus consistently and let His Spirit teach us how to relax in Him and how to exchange anxiety for peace. We must watch Him and know Him and respond to Him as He interacts with us.

If our little Bichon can learn to repsond to Garry and me, we can certainly learn to respond to the Spirit's activity in our lives. He wants to teach us contentment - the kind that leads to a peace of mind, heart, and soul that we cannot fully understand or explain. But that peace will guard our hearts and minds against any thorn or any storm that comes against us. We will be able to sit and smell the sweet aroma of His presence in our lives! And that, my friends, is far better than any Nobel Prize!