In the epistle reading for the first Sunday of this two-week bulletin St Paul makes the simple but profound statement to ‘young’ Pastor Timothy that ‘… godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Timothy 6:6).  I expect there is something in all of us that accepts the truth of that.  Yet on a practical level we might rightly ask something like “That’s all good, but how does one be content?  How does one be godly? How does one do both at the same time so we can have that great gain?”  These questions get asked among a lot of clutter in our lives that hides the reality of St Paul’s statement.  Clutter also in our spiritual landscape that further distracts and obscures. Therefore, in a return to basics, both godliness and contentment need to be seen as gifts of God.  The two work closely together and indeed might even be one and the same.  At their basis is God’s grace…. The free gift of his Son Jesus, his ongoing outpouring of the Holy Spirit and all the life and love that He brings and the faith He gives us.  When discontent the equivalent to the happy place when we are upset, needs to be a return to the grace place!  So the cross, the open tomb and our saviour Jesus Christ saying ‘Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’(Matthew 28:20b).